Latest Banksy Detective Work Is Deplorable

Last year, the Daily Mail published photos and compelling evidence that Banksy’s real name is Robin Gunningham. Now the newspaper make an obnoxious attempt to substantiate their claim citing an ambiguous stencil they found on the street.

The artwork, created using a stencil, typical of the artist, shows one of Banksy’s trademark necklace-wearing rats holding a placard.

On the placard is a young man’s face, bearing a striking resemblance to the MoS photograph, unveiled last July, of a man believed to be Mr Gunningham, 35, a former pupil at the £9,240-a-year Bristol Cathedral School. Read more »

Banksy Targets the Gray Ghost In New Orleans

Photos: Banksy (Click to enlarge)
Street stenciling provocateur Banksy updated his website with some photos of the work he recently did in the Big Easy and even offered up the specifics of his combat mission: striking back at Fred “the Gray Ghost” Radtke, an anti-graffiti zealot who has even earned the praise of the cops and Mayor Ray Nagin. Says Mr. Gunningham:

“I came to New Orleans to do battle with the Gray Ghost, a notorious vigilante who’s been systematically painting over any graffiti he can find with the same shade of grey paint since 1997. Consequently he’s done more damage to the culture of the city than any section five hurricane could ever hope to achieve.”

Radtke has made it his mission to buff all forms of graffiti—in some cases even on private property—making him just as guilty of vandalism as the vandals he claims to be fighting. Click below for another example of Banksy’s homage to the color hating, idea killing vandal and other spots that not even Gray Ghost is going to bother buffing.

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Banksy Buffed In the Big Easy

Stenciler and street artist to the stars Robin Gunningham Banksy was in New Orleans celebrating the anniversary of Hurrican Katrina by adorning the still damp city with some pointed visuals. Here’s a whole set of work he’s done and that has been spotted thus far—including this image of a piece that was already lightly vandalized. The original image is to the left, and the slightly-Dada styled rework to the right (click to enlarge).
Photos: Jonnodotcom (left) / Toaminorplace (right)

Banksy Responds To Idenity Question With Deflective Self-Deprecation

After plausibly being ID’d as Robin Gunningham earlier this week, Banksy, the popular not so anonymous street painting stenciler responds on his website:

“Please Note
I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being “good at drawing” doesn’t sound like Banksy to me.”

And in response to this perfectly predictable piece, no it doesn’t matter if he went to a fancy prep school, and he ain’t “middle class” either, he’s rich!

Banksy ID’d As Robin Gunningham

Photo: (left) Robin Gunningham 1989, UK (right) Banksy 2004, Jamaica
The UK’s Daily Mail has uncovered the most compelling proof to date that street stenciler Banksy’s real identity is Robin Gunningham, but first some quick background. Last year, while writing for Complex.com, I noted how the British (and world) media had all but ignored the Banksy photo that was first published by the Evening Standard on Friday July 30th, 2004. It was part of a series of images taken at Dancehall superstar Buju Banton’s studio in Jamaica by professional button pusher Peter Dean Rickards. Evidently he had a falling out with the art prankster—it had something to do with Banksy being an egotistical prick or something—and sold one of the photos to the news outlet that ran it with the headline: “Unmasked at last.” Despite republishing some of these photos and even receiving a cease and desist on behalf of MeenaKhera PR—who claimed the rights to the images and threatened legal action—many still doubted it was him (we later learned the PR hacks paid 10,000 British pounds for those rights).

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