What now seems like a lifetime but is merely a decade ago I sat slumped at my desk, head on arm pushing a pencil round a piece of paper dreaming up ways to kill time and break the chains holding me to my desk, Monday to Friday each day became the same and I was eating my brain.

Then one day whilst dreaming up further ideas in the series of ‘Ways to kill time’ the pencil lines on the pad started to become characters, strange and dysfunctional they formed my dysfunctional world which had no rule. Slowly I figured the pencil could be replaced with a marker pen (the Pentel N50 to be exact) and the paper replaced with cheap vinyl which was acquired from DIY stores, these characters once resigned to a life on paper filed in a folder under ‘Not suitable for visual consumption’ began to have a life of their own; adhered to lamp post and electrical boxes they plotted and linked my route home, one became 10 and slowly 10 became more than I can remember. Each evening and as much of the day as I could rob was spent drawing and cutting out stickers. Stickers became posters, posters became more ambitious and somewhere in between I quit my job or maybe that was I got fired, either way the inevitable had happened. Like a river cuts it’s own path, I’d cut mine.

This family of dysfunctional characters began evolve, they started to satirise and hold to ransom all that fell into their grasp, a welcome jolt of subversion in today’s media-saturated environment, the very same thing I’d grown up on. Bank notes were drawn and printed over and put into circulation for the unsuspecting to receive in their change, billboards taken over with public service announcements. I wanted to encourage people to not just to ‘see’, but to look at what surrounds them and their lives, reflecting our increasingly bizarre popular culture, re-thinking and reworking cultural figures and genres to comment on our ethos of conspicuous consumption. A Pandora’s box of bittersweet delights, sweet and sugary on the surface, but with an unfamiliar, uncomfortable, taste beneath.

This isn’t the beginning, it’s not the end it’s happy never ending.

D*Face

British

Perhaps the most famous figure in street art working today, Banksy is known for urban interventions that demonstrate irreverent wit and a biting political edge. Enhancing his mystique by maintaining an anonymous identity, the artist has modified street signs, illegally printed his own currency, and illicitly hung his own work in the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art. He often uses spray paint and stencils in his critiques of consumerism, political authority, terrorism, and the status of art and its display. His street art, installations, and studio-produced works have been shown in Los Angeles, New York, London, Bethlehem, and beyond. His art has been subject to widespread interest on the secondary market and has fetched eight figures at auction.

Perhaps the most famous figure in street art working today, Banksy is known for urban interventions that demonstrate irreverent wit and a biting political edge. Enhancing his mystique by maintaining an anonymous identity, the artist has modified street signs, illegally printed their own currency, and illicitly hung their work in the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art. There is no limit to what Banksy will do, creating works anywhere in the world. 

He often uses spray paint and stencils in his critiques of consumerism, political authority, terrorism, and the status of art and its display. Banksy’s well-known use of animal motifs in an anthropomorphic way, the work can both make you laugh and contemplate. Banksy’s work also has a charitable side, as he has raised money for Palestine, Ukraine, and refugees through releases such as the Welcome Mat in collaboration with the charity [_Love Welcomes_](https://fairart.com/editorial/guide/introducing-love-welcomes-x-fair-art/40). Find a work that suits your sensibilities in our collection. 

##About Banksy

Rising from the Bristol underground scene, Banksy has gained global recognition, bringing street art and graffiti into public conversation across the world. Banksy’s street art, installations, and studio-produced works have been shown in Los Angeles, New York, London, Bethlehem, and beyond. Still an unknown figure, Banksy continues to elude arrest and share their often political musings and critiques through street art throughout the UK. His art has been subject to widespread interest on the secondary market and has fetched eight figures at auction.

His work moved from the streets to print publishing work with Pictures on Walls (POW), growing Banksy into a commercial artist producing official limited edition prints of his most iconic works. This offered a democratisation of art ownership as Banksy became not just an accessible artist on the street but also to own in your home, growing his popularity by offering work directly to the public. 