Artist Inspiration: Banksy

Banksy is an anonymous, English based Graffiti artist, political activist and film director. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combined with dark humour with graffiti, executed with a distinct stenciling technique. His works on socio-political commentary have been featured on the streets, walls and bridges of cities around the world. Banksy’s works had grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborating with musicians and other artists. His style is similar to Blek le Rat, a Parisian stencil artist from the 80’s.
Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self built physical prop pieces. He considers his art as a form of under-class “revenge”, that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory, and glory from a more powerful, well-equipped enemy. He is known to mock centralized power, in hopes his works will show that power does exist and seeks to work against you.
Banksy’s work also explores themes such as anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti-facisim, anarchy, as well as critiquing the human condition like greed, poverty, hypocrisy, etc. His works rely on visual imagery and iconography to put his messages forward.

Resources:
“Banksy.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 16 May 2016