'Banksy: Genius or Vandal?’ comes to Hong Kong – and these 6 iconic images will help you find the answer
Following stops in Moscow, Madrid and Lisbon, the world’s largest and most-visited Banksy retrospective, Banksy: Genius or Vandal?, is coming to Hong Kong – thumb up on the anonymous street artist’s most influential and impactful artworks now
The world’s best-known street artist, Banksy has elevated the art of graffiti with work that embraces trenchant social commentary and subversive humour. Famously anonymous and subject to endless speculation about his identity, the British artist has a style that’s instantly recognisable – despite owing an awful lot to pioneering French graffiti star Blek le Rat – and a mordantly satirical tone that comments critically on both the art world and society in general.
Famed for his stunts and hoaxes, he has also taken his work beyond walls with project such as his “bemusement park” Dismaland and 2010 film Exit Through the Gift Shop, a documentary about French street artist Mr Brainwash that stars Banksy himself and might possibly also be a hoax.
Now Hongkongers have a chance to see his work for themselves at the touring exhibition “Banksy: Genius or Vandal?”, landing at Kowloon Bay gallery Portal 6311 from December 20 to March 1. In the meantime, here are a few of the artist’s career highlights.
The Mild Mild West (1997)
This is where the cult of Banksy started. His first large-scale mural, The Mild Mild West features all of his trademarks: anti-authoritarianism, subversive humour and incongruously combined elements – in this case a smiling teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police. It was painted in three days in 1997 – over an ad for a firm of solicitors – in response to police aggressively closing down illegal raves in the artist’s native Bristol in southwestern England, where it’s popular with locals for its depiction of the city’s laid-back but rebellious character.
Girl with Balloon/Love is in the Bin (2002)
Perhaps the most instantly recognisable Banksy image of all, Girl with Balloon – a depiction of yearning and loss featuring a small girl reaching towards a heart-shaped red balloon that is apparently being blown away from her – was originally a series of stencilled murals around London in 2002. It has since been revived in several new versions, including one floating over the Israeli West Bank barrier, and a painting in which the girl is replaced by a Syrian refugee.
In a 2017 poll Girl with Balloon was even ranked as the UK’s favourite art work. It also became the ultimate expression of Banksy’s relentless satire of the art world (he once titled a 2007 work depicting an auction room I Can’t Believe You Morons Actually Buy This S**t), when a framed copy shredded itself immediately after it was sold, at a Sotheby’s auction in 2018, thanks to a device Banksy had hidden in the frame. The artist christened the new work thus created Love is in the Bin, and it is probably now worth a lot more than the £1 million (US$1.3 million) the buyer paid for it.
