Banksy‘s super-secret new summer exhibition opened to VIP’s on June 12th and the public on the 13th before running for the rest of the summer. For those unfamiliar with Banksy, please read our various stories, but the Bristol-born secret graffiti artist seems to also be a master at underground marketing. The hype for this show, like many others, is enormous and the BBC preview here proves it.
Always showcasing irony in street art and graffiti, Banksy pulls it off once again with oddities such as a burned-out ice cream truck with a giant melting cone on top done-up in graffiti, statements art pieces such as “Workers of the World Unite” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Also known as an ironic animatronics creator, some of the 100 pieces feature some of his new animatronics and sculpture pieces. Banksy work often makes mainstream news (like the BBC) because of his political and anti-corporate themes, which also attracts top pop culture collectors such as Brad Pitt. As a guerilla street artist, one of his best moves was when he embedded a fake Guantanano Bay “prisoner” inside of a theme park in Disney World which magically stayed in place and freaked people out for hours before security noted it.
Our favorite Banksy show of course was the Los Angeles show in the warehouse district a few years ago featuring, among other things, a live elephant painted in natural-colored pink paint walking through a living room set up.
Bristol of course is a great location for the artist’s latest secret show (no one knows what he looks like) because this represents his hometown or at least the first place he started to illegal post his artwork on the streets.
According to Bristol City Museum who had to keep a tight lid on the show and took great “risks” to make this happen (even the Council didn’t know what to expect), Banksy said: “This is the first show I%uFFFDve ever done where taxpayers%uFFFD money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off.”
Check out a preview of the Banksy show here:
Swoon’s Floating Armada Makes a Statement in Venice, Italy
In other street and graffiti art news, Swoon and her floating armada art sculpture Swimming Cities of Serenissima, finally arrived at the Biennale in Venice. This armada included a crew of 35 artists, musicians, and mechanics (who are much needed for such a project, as she’s learned the hard way) on a 2-raft performance flotilla in the Adriatic Sea.
Starting in May in the Karst region of Slovenia where many trees were originally cut for pilings in nearby Venice, and where the land still lays quite bare, they floated along the northern coast ending in Venice for the Biennale.
The flotilla stopped along the way, collecting bits of various pieces found at their stops to add to the cabin, while providing entertainment including music, shadow puppetry, and stories for those who stopped by to see the flotilla.
Swoon’s idea is to push the imagination, bring to light our urban landscapes and the environment, and create different sorts of relationships as new people encounter the artistic floating performance troupe.
