Before we go any further, I think it’s important that we scotch a particularly insidious rumor making the rounds.
About Banksy, Andy…and me.
I have long thought that Banksy is sort of the UK’s answer to Andy Warhol. With one important distinction.
Warhol loved the public limelight. Lusted for it even. He couldn’t get enough of his own face, and assumed that everybody else felt the same way.
While, Banksy, the Bristol street artist turned stencil Renaissance Man, avoids the spotlight like the plague. To the extent that he jealously guards his real identity.
Now, that rumor: Some self-taught Sherlocks have deduced that Banksy’s is really some guy named Robin Gunningham.
Robin Gunningham.
Don’t ask me why, but that name seems, oh I dunno, hauntingly familiar.
Why? Haven’t a clue.
In any case, I think that malicious rumors about Banksy’s real identity need to be squished forthwith.
As Banksy’s favorite foils, police officers, might say.
In any event, I, Ron Cunningham (no relation to Robin, I’m sure), am a certified Banksy groupie.
Listen, when I was in London recently, I walked a considerable distance through the city center just to view Banksy’s latest creation: The blind-leading-the-blind statue that he and his crew erected surreptitiously in the dead of night without official leave from God or anybody else.
Said statue not only still standing, but now one of the most photographed landmarks in London.
I even did a post about it.
And, yes, I DO believe that our Great Orange Cheeto was Banksy’s model.
Change my mind.
Not only that, but on a previous visit to London I took a bicycle pilgrimage to an old subway tunnel that Banksy and his pals turned into an ever-evolving monument to the subversive art of street murals.
Listen, to a street art connoisseur like myself it was something akin to a religious experience.
Like walking through the Sistine Chapel.
So when I heard that there was a Banksy exhibit at the Straz Center For The Performing Arts, in downtown Tampa, I obviously had to go.
Even though getting there – via I-75 – was considerably more tedious, not to mention hazardous, than a long walk or bicycle ride through London.
But I am a certified Banksy groupie, and therefore go I must.
Long story short: It was stupendous, spectacular, epic, astonishing (add your own superlative here, as I don’t have my Thesaurus handy.)
You ought to see it. You won’t be disappointed.
But be advised: The exhibit ends on Sept. 27, so time’s running out. For ticket info, click here.
The entire exhibit unfolds in a series of narrow, dark corridors illuminated only by Banksy’s sardonic, sarcastic, ironic, biting and hilarious (you know what to do) creations.
Some of which, by the by, have sold for millions of dollars.
Not bad for a guy who decided to switch from free-hand spraying to quicker-to-apply stencil art after he spent a very uncomfortable night under an oil-leaking lorry evading the police.
Anyway, here is sampling from The Art of Banksy. Check it out.
FreeGNV 