Banksy: sign of the times

 So up pops another Banksy where you least expect it, expanding on the long-running vermin theme.

I can't be sure but that looks a bit like Spitalfields, or maybe Hoxton, and that there is a road sign just begging to be removed.

Let's see how long it stays up.

Banksy on the move: how to transport a wall

The trouble with Banksy's artwork is that a lot of it is sprayed on walls. So if you want to exhibit his original pieces you have to take the wall down.

That's exactly what was done for the Original Street Works exhibition at the Keszler Gallery in New York. Walls were taken down in Los Angeles, Palestine, Brighton and New Orleans, and artworks dating back to as far as 2002 removed.

The video shows you the process of removing the Stop and Search and Wet Dog works from Palestine.

Banksy must have wondered why he bothered going all the way out there in the first place.

Banksy on tour: California spraying

So he's still there then after his failure to pick up anything at the Oscars. To be honest, while Exit Through the Gift Shop was undoubtedly a worthy contender, perhaps his Oscar nomination was really a step too far towards the mainstream.

That's not withstanding the logistical difficulties associated with attending the ceremony without blowing his identity.

Whatever, that's all in the dim and distant past now, and Banksy is back to doing what he does best with a bit of exterior design. This time it's a star-glassed rat on a taco shop wall in Oceanside.

Via Hypebeast

 Pictures by Drew Schultz

Banksy goes to Hollywood, but not to the Oscars

Well Banksy won't be going to the Oscars to pick up his Best Documentary gong for Exit Through the Gift Shop.

The organisers have told him he won't be allowed to attend in disguise, which as good as bans him from going seeing as he is just as famous for his hidden identity as he is his paintings.

That doesn't seem to have put him off his spraying - more Banksy artworks are appearing on the streets of Hollywood by the day, and the world's favourite vandal has even made onto an episode of The Simpsons.

Still, with the attention of Hollywood focused on the Oscars, Banksy could have the time of his life with those cans of his on the night.

Banksy goes to Hollywood: part trois

Banksy is keeping himself so busy in Hollywood that it's difficult to keep up. Here are another couple of works that have appeared. Expect that tanker to be airlifted away by some rich collector by the end of the week.

 

Via Arrested Motion

Banksy goes to Hollywood: part deux

A quick addendum to yesterday's post about Banksy in Tinseltown. This time he's given a billboard the treatment, which raises two questions: how long before someone climbs up there and nicks it, and if they don't, will anyone dare to paper over it and ruin what could possibly be a multi-million dollar work of art?

Expect to see it on Ebay anytime soon.

Via Wooster Collective

Banksy goes to Hollywood

Banksy is nothing if not well travelled. One minute he's painting a wall around the corner and the next thing he pops up in Hollywood being a bad influence on Charlie Brown.

I hope Snoopy isn't around when that petrol goes up.

Banksy: in the line of vision

I can see this building from my window, seven floors down on The Highway in East London. It has a fresh lick of magnolia paint, no doubt ordered by some jobsworth after what is suspected to be a Banksy appeared on it.

It just goes to show the notice I take of my surroundings that I never once clocked the artwork, which even if it turns out to be done by someone else, does raise a smile.

If you're reading this Banksy, do us a favour and stick it up again.

Banksy goes flat pack: there's bound to be a screw missing

Banksy does a portrait of your average Ikea customer

Banksy's last film has been nominated for an Oscar apparently although with him you never really know what to believe so when I see a hooded figure clutchig a gold Action Man, then I will be convinced.

I still haven't seen the film anyway, and here's another one, entitled How to Sell a Banksy, which is pretty much as self explanatory as you can get, you might think. Apparently it's a comedy caper.

And to commemorate what is no doubt a bit of celluloid mastery, Banksy's vandalised another wall.

I hate Ikea anyway so this is actually totally up my strasa. It's just a shame he didn't do it inside one of their superstores, while in the queue for some meatballs and chips perhaps.

Banksy's graffiti blackboard: saves paint

I've just painted a blackboard onto a wall in my kitchen, but this isn't it. You'll find this particular blackboard on a wall on the Regents Canal and it has been created by Banksy.

I'm not entirely sure if this is the wall which became the subject of that aerosol-fuelled feud between Banksy and his nemesis King Robbo, but it looks like it's in a similarly grim setting.

If it is it means Banksy has obliterated Robbo entirely, thus setting the scene for some more tit-for-tat antics. Maybe that's the point of the chalk drawing - Robbo can just rub it out and do his own, and so on ad infinitum.

More fun than a game of hopscotch in the lunch hour, and just think of the environmental benefits.

Banksy: At it again

At the other end of the art spectrum from the extravagance of Murakami is Banksy.

None of your Palace of Versailles here - instead he chooses pretty average urban walls which need a bit of a perking up with a few observations on the hypocrisy of life.

Seeing as he's in the middle of some sort of multicolour spraypaint comedy battle with another graffiti bloke called King Robbo right now, you can expect these pieces to last about as long as it takes Robbo to find them.

Maybe that's the significance of the egg timer in the one above. Maybe it's something completely different.

Whatever, it's a good job someone took some pictures of them