A mural by graffiti artist Banksy in Stoke Newington, east London, which was once featured on the cover of a single by rock band Blur, has been painted partially painted over over with black paint by Hackney Council. The BBC has more “Blur Banksy Ruined By Mistake”.

I popped this up on my Tumblr before I left for vacation, in case you missed it, a bit of a recap of Banksy’s show that started June 13 and is soon to close August 31. 2009. The elusive graffiti artist Banksy, unveiled his show at The Bristol Museum on June 13th. The artist filled three stories of the museum building with his art in just 36 hours under tight security, only a few museum staff were aware of the shows’ imminent arrival. In fact, apparently many of the museum guides only discovered that they would be working in a Banksy exhibition two day’s prior to its public opening after being employed via the Job Centre. The artist “remixed” the museum’s own collection by putting more than 100 of his own artworks among it – by far the largest Banksy show to date, of work mostly never shown in the UK before.

In a rare statement Banksy said: “The people in Bristol have always been very good to me – I decided the best way to show my appreciation was by putting a bunch of old toilets and some live chicken nuggets in their museum”

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum closes August 31, admission is FREE. Thanks to UK Street Art, you can check out a microsite, where a near complete photo gallery of the exhibit, extensive video collection and selection of articles is now housed.

I can’t imagine Banky’s “over”, even though his set of Warhol style Kate Moss prints failed to sell at auction, really that’s not THAT unusual, and I was sort of lukewarm on the New York show… Personally, I say he’s still got more than a few great ideas left to cover and has yet to do his best work. The latest piece above, in Gillett Square, Hackney, shows a child dressed in urban clothing, carrying a boombox and a teddy bear, commentary on the state of hip hop today? The work is the first since October of last year and the first in the UK since the artist painted ‘One Nation Under CCTV’ in London in April 2008.

The second sample above,’Last Graffiti Before Motorway’, is a little more difficult to locate, according to The Londonist, the piece is near a traffic island junction off the A1 and A406 just north of Brent Cross. Better shots of the pieces can be had by visiting Flickr. A few fans on the Banksy forum are speculating that a London show is to follow this sudden burst of activity.

There seems to be a bit of activity over at the Banksy homepage, a new image of the beloved children’s icon Thomas The Train being defaced and an updated manifesto that reads;

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.
Then I realised God doesn’t work that way, so I stole
one and prayed for forgiveness.

– Emo Philips

Banksy has posted his new work, this time with commentary from his recent visit to New Orleans. The artist’s statements filled me with a sort of poignant anxiety, or distress; seeing as Hurricane Gustav is scheduled to hit Louisiana on Monday morning. For the record the above piece reads;

“I looked out the window of the taxi on the drive into New Orleans and remarked ‘There’s still so much devastation – I can’t believe they haven’t cleaned this mess up’ to which the driver stared at me and said ‘This part of the city wasn’t affected by the hurricane – its always looked like this’”

British street artist Banksy has painted several murals in New Orleans to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The majority of the work relates to Hurricane Katrina and its disastrous aftermath, while others poke the infamous “Gray Ghost” Fred Radtke, the New Orleans anti-graffiti crusader known for his practice of covering over graffiti with gray paint. For a closer look check out John d’Addario’s Banksy Does New Orleans Flickr stream, Toaminorplace’s photostream and Anthonyturducken’s Banksy Set.

I’ve been covering Banksy on this site since 2004, it comes as no surprise that a British newspaper claims that the decade long quest to find the true identity of underground graffiti artist Banksy has ended. The Mail on Sunday reported that Banksy is a former Bristol public schoolboy Robin Gunningham, 34.

In a report based on interviews with friends, former workmates and even Banksy’s enemies, the newspaper said it spent more than a year gathering evidence. The newspaper supposedly traced the artist by using a photo that purportedly showed him at work in Jamaica in 2004. The photo taken by Peter Dean Rickards and was shown to people who knew Gunningham, with some confirming it was him.

The Jamaican photo has been floating around for some time, back in 2004, The Wooster Collective published the photos along with an interview of the photographer Peter Dean Rickards who is also known as Afflicted. Wooster’s editors decided to pull the story and delete the interview, you can read Wooster Collective’s statement via the Web Archive (scroll down). When the Mark Ecko produced Complex Website attempted to publish the Jamaican photo back in May which coincided with a large Banksy article in the New Yorker, they were hit with a cease and desist order from the aptly named “Finers Stephens Innocent”.

Obviously the mystery surrounding the true identity of Banksy has contributed to his work climbing in value. Not too bad for a guy who started out as a street artist but whose work is now coveted by art dealers, celebrities and earns him a fortune. The BBC reports on the identity of Banksy, WATCH VIDEO.

Banksy’s agent Steve Lazarides told The New Yorker that Rickards’ picture did not depict his client, his publicist denied the claims, while closed friends and relatives could neither confirm or deny the man in the photograph is or ever was Banksy or Robin. The alleged artist’s parents feigned a bout of amnesia when asked if they had a son who is named Robin. The artist told Swindle magazine earlier this year; “I have no interest in ever coming out…and besides, it’s a pretty safe bet that the reality of me would be a crushing disappointment to a couple of 15-year-old kids out there.”

Further Reading:
So what if Banksy’s cover has been blown?
From the Guardian: “The identity of the secretive street artist has been outed by a Sunday newspaper and, shock horror, he’s middle class. But does it matter?”

According to SuperTouch Pop Will Eat Itself, or Banksy as a victim of his own art form; “Walking through the abandoned Eurostar terminal-turned impromptu stencil art museum that is BANKSY’s infamous “Cans Festival,” it seems that the Bristol bad boy has his share of detractors after all. Just two months after the show’s debut (it’s scheduled to remain on public display until Fall) it seems the local graffiti droogs have made their feelings regarding England’s prince of street art known in the form of ubiquitous tagging throughout the tunnel. Do we smell an old school graffiti war brewing? No chance, that would be way too “street.” The Queen will probably have her royal art conservators on the job restoring the place by week’s end.”

Trailer not so trash as a couple hope to make £500,000 selling their mobile home that’s covered in art by famed street artist Banksy. Nathan Welland and Maeve Neal met the artist through friends. The then unknown street artist covered the side expanse of the trailer with a 30ft by 7ft mural titled ‘Fragile Silence‘. The piece features commandos with a stereo and scenes including a primate playing drums. The sale is being handled by Norfolk art dealer William Burroughs who called the work Van-Tastic.

Damn, someone was fortunate to be in London at the exact same time Banksy’s Cans Festival opened, coincidence, I think not. He took over 200 photographs and not a stinker in the lot.

Bansky Paints New Mural. Famed graffiti artist Banksy was at it again over the weekend, painting an indictment of closed circuit TV in central London. Despite the presence of a CCTV camera, he erected a three-story scaffolding and a plastic cover under which he painted his masterpiece. Not only can the real cameras be seen just to the right of the graffiti, a policeman with a camera is part of the artwork. The work, above a Post Office yard in Newman Street near Oxford Circus, shows a small boy, watched by a security guard, painting the words: ‘One nation under CCTV.’ The Daily Mail Reports.

11:12 am*

Swiss ambassador Bruno Spinner asked a group of graffiti artists in 2001 to help deal with Switzerland’s public relations nightmare: i.e.Swiss Banks held Nazi Gold in World War II. Spinner recruited a group of graffiti artists to create new works in the Swiss embassy car park as a sort of image makeover, and the artists were permitted to have a rave. The Guardian today reveals that one of the little-known artists was the provocateur Banksy, and that his previously secret art in the car park is now valued at over 1 million English pounds. See Video

Bono and Damien Hirst’s (RED) St. Valentine’s Day art auction for HIV/AIDS at Sothebys I mentioned earlier, brought in more than 38.7 million for AIDS treatment in Africa. 75 artists donated works, including Jeff Koons, the worlds priciest living artist. Hirst who gave seven works to the charity brought in a total of $17. 4 million before fees, his pill cabinet filled with painted antiretroviral drugs fetched $6.2 million total. Item after item fetched a price far above its top estimate. The stunning work by London street artist Banksy, showing a woman sweeping dust under a spotted Hirst canvas (Banksy Defaced Hirst) see above, was estimated at around $300,000 but set a record for Banksy when it took $1.7 million. All auction proceeds will go to the United Nations Foundation’s fund to support HIV/AIDS programs in Africa. More information and slides from Bloomberg.

Fresh Banksy right around the corner from the New Beverly Cinema in L.A.? First noticed by The Wooster Collective, picked up by the LAist. Could it be that Banksy like Warhol is having others replicate his pieces in chosen locations? I love the Wet Dog piece featured on Bansky’s site with the text, ‘People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish…but that’s only if it’s done properly.’

A piece of Banksy street art depicting a caricature of the underground artist in the guise of a painter complete with palette and easel is currently being auctioned on Ebay. The design, a stencil of the artist over a red Banksy tag, is being offered for sale on-line until 14 January by the owners of post-production house Portobello Post in west London (274D Portobello Road, London W10 closer to Cambridge Gardens, I think), where the mural was completed last summer. The most recent bid is £25,100.00 for the art, as the cost of removal is not included in the sale price of the piece which can be yours if you meet the smart ‘Buy it Now’ valuation of £1 million ($2 million).

In what I think was quite a decent gesture, Banksy has given one of his paintings as a raffle prize to raise money for sick children. The piece is a preliminary work for one of Banksy’s new murals on the West Bank barrier. For a fiver via PayPal, you could win that Banksy, or a number of other great pieces by Nick Walker, Faile, Motorboy and more, via the Graffle website or at outlet locations in and around Bristol. Tickets will be sold until January 16, all money goes to charity and the drawing will be on January 18. 2008.

update* I stand corrected, a reader graciously points out that, the painting Banksy has given for the raffle was a preliminary work for his new print available from Santas Ghetto (it sold out in 30 mins!) and was never done as a mural in the west bank.

Be sure to read the fantastic interview Shepard Fairey did with Banksy for Swindle Magazine. When asked how long the artist will remain anonymous, he responded: “I have no interest in ever coming out. I figure there are enough self-opinionated assholes trying to get their ugly little faces in front of you as it is. You ask a lot of kids today what they want to be when they grow up, and they say, ‘I want to be famous.’ You ask them for what reason and they don’t know or care. I think Andy Warhol got it wrong: in the future, so many people are going to become famous that one day everybody will end up being anonymous for 15 minutes.”

Two original urine samples in decorative containers by famed artist Banksy are set to be auctioned on Wednesday. The underground auction is expected to raise nearly $600,000. The I.P. Daily reports: “The piece expected to top the bidding is ‘Avon and Somerset Constabulary on Piss Cup,’ an image of two police officers peering through binoculars silkscreened on plastic urine container. It’s estimated to sell for $120,000 or more. Also included is a screen print donated by an anonymous urologist titled ‘British Royal Guard on Piss Cup,’ showing a British Royal Guard taking a piss break. The auction house responsible for selling Madonna’s Pap Smear is handling the lots, check out the rest here.

A fresh Banksy signals customer assassination month for shoppers in Bristol. Sniper mural targets commodification, curbs consumption wipes out the scabrous, wrongheaded, insulting, condescending, xenophobic, cut throat, dogmatic, obfuscating, insipid phenomenon of product placement and shopping. If your future dream is a shopping scheme, beware, unauthorised prints by the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy have been turning up on eBay as limited edition, signed works, by employees of the company which publishes and authenticates the artist’s works on paper, Pictures on Walls (POW). The prints have been marked with a replica of the POW blindstamp and carry a forged signature. More from the Art Newspaper.

First off, David shot the image to your left walking through Le Quartier du Marais, Paris, is it a Banksy? Mais, non, but Damn well looks like one, I believe it has something to do with that Eric-O-Chet signature. Perhaps it is just a small world, that’s getting smaller. Meanwhile, A London gay bar, the Shadow Lounge, will host a 3 million £ auction on Oct. 11 during the Frieze Art Fair, with works by Banksy, Damien Hirst and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Banksy dealer Steve Lazarides said. The Shadow Lounge is a gay pole-dancing bar, burlesques and various acts will be staged during the auction. Banksy will provide three pieces for the auction, Lazarides said. The spray-painted ‘Rat With Roller,’ from 2006 will be sold at the gay bar, while The Rude Lord an original 1776 Thomas Beach portrait altered to show an extended finger, has a 200,000 pound top estimate at Sotheby’s. A ‘Kids on Guns image, auctioned for 600 pounds in 2004, is priced at as much as 30,000 pounds at Sotheby’s.

Looks like Banksy answered the Wooster Collectives’ query taking responsibility for the art work in question on his website. Oddly enough 2 rare captions appears with photographs of the piece that read:

“How do we solve the issue of youth crime?
How do we get these kids to kill the right people?”

“The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns. A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote, ‘If its better next time I’ll leave it’ in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone-rest in piece.”

Obviously the quotes are a nod to Banksy’s loving tribute to prolific 21-year-old Bradley Chapman a.k.a. artist ‘Ozone’ who died unexpectedly with his pal Daniel Elgar a.k.a graffiti artist ‘Wants’, last January 2007. The Guardian reported, “They had apparently scaled the 3m-high palisade security fencing, and were planning to spray paint the side of a train. According to the British Transport police (BTP), security guards spotted them and shouted, at which point the two men dashed out across the tracks, only to be struck by a westbound District line train.”