Banksy, Banksy

English graffiti artist. His work is political and satirical, sprayed in public places all over the world as well as painted on canvasses for gallery display and sale. Although there has been great public conjecture about his identity, it remains unconfirmed.

For efficiency he usually uses stencils, enabling him to craft his paintings with great detail in a short time. He often juxtaposes popular icons with incongruous images, for example a war helicopter adorned with a large pink bow. Other work includes retakes on famous masterpieces, for example Claude Monet's water lilies littered with overturned shopping trolleys and Van Gogh's sunflowers, wilted and dying. Rats are also a common theme.

He began spray-painting trains and walls in Bristol in the early 1990s and expanded his settings throughout England, then all over the world by the early 2000s. He painted nine scenes, for example, on the barrier wall separating Israel and Palestine in 2006. He also staged several stunts, such as placing his own mock cave painting in the British Museum in 2005 and smuggling a life-sized inflatable statue of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner into Disneyland in California in 2006. Commercial work includes the cover art for Blur's 2003 album Think Tank.