some sort of Banksy retrospective
Banksy focused on London in 2002 and 2003, but he also did a few pieces in Bristol and Brighton. The iconic work Pulp Fiction went up in 2002 on Old Street in Shoreditch, one of Banksy’s preferred areas in London. The Royal Guards in different areas of London are from the same period.
Santa’s Ghetto was a “squat art concept store” set up at Christmas each year in different locations around London. The Dragons Bar in Shoreditch hosted the first edition. There were only Banksy and Ben Eine artworks.
Banksy opened his first Los Angeles exhibition, Existencilism, at the 33 1/3 Gallery on 19 July 2002. The show was sponsored by Puma. The most important piece was a big ‘Stop ESSO’ painted on one of the walls.
19 July 2002 – Opening night Existencilism, Los Angeles. The Stop Esso in the background:
It was a selling exhibition, and Banksy sold quite a few multiple canvases, most of them in an edition of 5 and dated LA 2002 on the stretcher:
Some of the multiple canvases that were sold at Existencilism. Photos: Bonhams and Sotheby’s
A month later, Banksy opened a reduced version of the Existencilism exhibition in Japan – Osaka (8-17 September) and Tokyo (13 – 24 September). Among other pieces, a Laugh Now on cardboard with the text in Japanese:
Laugh Now on cardboard. Photo: Sotheby’s
On May 30, Banksy released his second little black book, much heavier on rats than his first book. The book was launched with a street art show called Graffiti, Hostility and the Jubilee, which took place in a tunnel under the railway tracks connecting Clink Street and Bank End in Southwark, Central London.
UK Indymedia published a collage of photos from the event:
Collage: UK Indymedia
In his own words:
“Like most people I have a fantasy that all the little powerless losers will gang up together. That all the vermin will get some good equipment and then the underground will go overground and tear the city apart”
In the first years of the decade, besides the UK and US, Banksy went to Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Bergen, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Paris, and Palestine, where he painted the first stencilled version of the iconic Love is in the Air behind a gas station in Bethlehem.
Banksy unofficial 