Who is Banksy? That is what everybody has asked each other for the last couple of years. Although he is quite well-known, nobody knows that much about him. Is he artist? Or is he a vandal? Well... nobody knows for sure, all we do know is that his real name might be Robert Banks or Robin Gunningham and that he was born in Bristol, England, what we do know is that Banksy is an anonymous England based graffiti artist, as well as a film director and a painter. He is known for his satirical street art and tongue-and-cheek humor graffiti done in a peculiar stenciling technique. Such artistic works of political and social criticism have been found on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. Known for his contempt for the government in labelling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls, even going as far as to build physical prop pieces.
Stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand. Because of the private nature of Banksy's work and identity, it is unclear what techniques he uses to make the images in his stencils, though it is assumed he uses computers for some images due to the photocopy nature of much of his work.
Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved partnership between artists and musicians. According to his book "Wall and Piece," Banksy was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he was trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great aerosol hype of the late 1980s in Bristol, England. Banksy started life as a freehand street graffiti artist in Bristol in the early 80's, he was believed to be a member of the DryBreadZ Crew before he went on to stencilling his own work that started appearing in the streets of London, as well Bristol's streets. His works are now very desired, and owning an original Banksy is...