Walk in Bristol
with Richie
An early Banksy of a gorilla in a pink mask. This was accidentally painted over in 2011, but has since been restored and is now a ghostly version of the original.
Banksy's Artworks
in Bristol
Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, vandal, political activist, and film director. His satirical street art and subversive epigramscombine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique.
His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist who later became a founding member of the English musical group Massive Attack.
Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces. Banksy no longer sells photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but his public "installations" are regularly resold, often even by removing the wall they were painted on. A small number of Banksy's works are officially, non-publicly, sold through Pest Control. Banksy's documentary film Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film. In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.
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Personal life and disputed identity
Banksy's name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation.
In a 2003 interview with Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian, Banksy is described as "white, 28, scruffy casual – jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of the Streets".
He began as an artist at the age of 14, was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime. According to Hattenstone, "anonymity is vital to him because graffiti is illegal".
For 10 years in the late 1990s, Banksy lived in Easton, Bristol, then moved to London around 2000.
Banksy is believed to be Robin Gunningham, born on 28 July 1973 in Yate, 12 miles (19 km) from Bristol.
Several of Gunningham's associates and former schoolmates at Bristol Cathedral School have corroborated this rumour, and in 2016, a study found that the incidence of Banksy's works correlated with the known movements of Gunningham.
Lawyers representing Banksy commented on this study, but did not suggest that the paper's conclusions were flawed.
In 1994, Banksy checked into a New York hotel using the name "Robin", and in June 2017, DJ Goldie referred to Banksy as "Rob".
There has been alternate speculation that Banksy is:
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Robert Del Naja (a.k.a. 3D), frontman of the trip hop band Massive Attack. Del Naja had been a graffiti artist during the 1980s prior to forming the band and had previously been identified as a personal friend of Banksy.
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Jamie Hewlett, English comic book artist and designer best known for the comic Tank Girl and the virtual band Gorillaz. Joanna Brooks, Banksy's publicist, denied this claim.
In October 2014, an internet hoax circulated that Banksy had been arrested and his identity revealed.
Cultural icon
There exists a cult-like following for the artist. The ambiguity of his identity has drawn this group of followers. A concept, the "Banksy effect" has developed as a result of Banksy's artistic innovation. This term is in reference to the artist's ability to turn outsider art into the cultural mainstream.
It was coined to reference the way in which Banksy's work has led to an increased interest in street art. Street art has been incorporated into being a part of culture and daily life.
His work in turn, has questioned the authenticity of art and its creators, furthering the cultural debate that has existed for centuries.
In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film Exit via the Gift Shop.
In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.
As of 2014, Banksy was regarded as a British cultural icon, with young adults from abroad naming the artist among a group of people that they most associated with UK culture, which included William Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth II, David Beckham, The Beatles, Charlie Chaplin, J. K. Rowling, Elton John, and Adele.
Banksy's Artworks
in Bristol
Banksy's Grim Reaper
Stencil on the waterline of Thekla, an entertainment boat in central Bristol.
The section of the hull with this picture has now been removed and is on display at the M Shed museum.
The image of Death is based on a nineteenth-century etching illustrating the pestilence of The Great Stink.
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Banksy's Mild mild west
​The Mild Mild West is a mural by graffiti artist Banksy, sited on No. 80 Stokes Croft, Bristol. It depicts a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police.
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Banksy's Naked man - Well hung lover
​Well Hung Lover, also called Naked Man Hanging From Window and simply Naked Man, is a mural by the anonymous street artist Banksy, on a wall in Frogmore Street, Bristol, England.
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Banksy's The girl with pierced..
​Banky's "The girl with pierced " works, this first appeared on the side of a building in Albion Docks in Hanover Place, in Bristol's Harbourside in October 2014.
It depicts a take on Vermeer’s famous Girl with a Pearl Earring, replacing the girl’s earring with an outdoor security alarm.
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Banksy's Cupid -
Banksy's Valentine Day Murial
Banksy confirmed this mural on Marsh Lane in Barton Hill was his on Valentine's Day 2020. Close to the youth club where Banksy spend some of his time as a younger man. It shows a girl firing a catapult full of red flowers onto the side of a house.
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Banksy's Aachoo
The painting shows an old woman sneezing with her false teeth flying out.
REMOVED - 12.March 2021
Banksy's Cat and Dog
A very early Banksy showing a cat with a spray paint can and two approaching dogs.
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Banksy's The Masked Gorilla
An early Banksy of a gorilla in a pink mask. This was accidentally painted over in 2011, but has since been restored and is now a ghostly version of the original.
REMOVED
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Banksy - Take the money and run..
Banksy’s ‘Take The Money And Run’ is one of his earliest known works, and was created in collaboration with Inky and Mobz.
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Banksy's Rose Trap
​Found on the side of someone’s home, more than 20 local residents are said to have put their money together to buy a frame for this particular mural, (to protect it from vandalism), making this one of the best preserved pieces in Bristol. I think it’s safe to say that everyone’s super proud that Banksy comes from Bristol – so don’t you forget it!.
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Banksy's You Don't Need Planning...
Behind the central library, is one of Banksy’s most simple pieces, painted in 2011.
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Banksy's Paint -Pot Angel
Banksy’s ‘Paint-Pot Angel’ is a reminder of the hugely successful 'Banksy versus Bristol' Museum exhibition held in 2009 and can be seen inside Bristol Museum and Art Gallery where the exhibition was held.
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