Banksy

My trip to London last year September was filled with fabulous adventure of fashion which included attending London fashion weekend and lots and lots of shopping. Aside from the fashion and shopping the London street art really got my attention especially from the artist Banksy. His work is found on t-shirts, paintings, clocks, postcards and even key rings in areas like Portobello, Camden and Spitalfields to name a few. I became so obsessed with his work and that I had to bring something home and would have brought more if I had the place...

A little about Banksy....

Banksy is Pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director and painter. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humor with graffiti done in a distinctive stenciling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, wall, and bridges of cities throughout the world. When selected by time magazine as one of the most influential people in their list of the world's top 100 most influential people in 2010 amongst the likes of Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Steve Jobs. He supplied them with a picture of a paper bag over his head.

Most of his fans don't really want to know who is but they do follow his upward trajectory from the outlaw spraying of the walls in Bristol during the 1990's to the artist whose work commands hundreds of dollars in auctions throughout Britain and America. Today his work is found in cities like Vienna, San Francisco, Barcelona and Paris. Banksy moved on from just graffiti to painting on canvas and even film. His first film Exit Through the Gift Shop was nominated for an Academy Award.

During and interview in 2003 Banksy said - “There’s a whole new audience out there, and it’s never been easier to sell [one’s art], you don’t have to go to college, drag ’round a portfolio, mail off transparencies to snooty galleries or sleep with someone powerful, all you need now is a few ideas and a broadband connection. This is the first time the essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people. We need to make it count.”