some sort of Banksy retrospective
Ukrainian Post Office issued a postage stamp on 20 February with a reproduction of a Banksy mural depicting a boy defeating Putin in judo to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. On 27 February, Banksy confirmed the postage stamp on his Instagram.
You can buy them here: https://postmark.ukrposhta.ua/index.php?route=common/home. The edition is 1.5 mn, and the price is € 4.68 per sheet of six stamps. You can also buy postcards and envelopes with the same motive.
After a 15-month recess, Banksy is finally back to work with some high-class art in the area around Kyiv, Ukraine.
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There are two types of unauthorized Banksy exhibitions; the ones with 100% fake reproductions and those with 100% authentic pieces. The exhibitions with authentic works are unauthorized by the artist, but well-curated displays of special edition screen-prints, canvases and other unique material, all with Certification of Authenticity issued by Pest Control together with high-quality ephemera.
One of the exhibitions with authentic pieces is “Art of Banksy”, last seen in Covent Garden in London and Washington DC. (The Art of Banksy was initially curated by former agent Steve Lazarides.) The other ones are “Banksy – the Art of Protest”, – previously labelled as “Genius or Vandal?” and “Building Castles in the Sky”, last seen in New York and curated by Andipa. They source their pieces from serious long-term collectors, but one can assume they are not very popular with the Banksy camp. Still, nevertheless, they are honest and well-executed exhibitions.
On the other side: there are several ongoing exhibitions around the world with 100% fake artwork, squeezing out the exhibits mentioned above. They have no insurance or cost of sourcing the art works, as they only display fakes. Typically these fake exhibits consist of bad reproductions of street art and shoddy copies of his most iconic canvases and screen prints. The organizers often promote the fake studio pieces as being authentic. To make it even more fake and confusing, one of these shady operators has copied the name of The Art of Banksy from the exhibit mentioned above.
The following photos are from the 100% fake but well-attended exhibit The Mystery of Banksy – A genius mind in Malmö, Sweden.
Photos from the 100% fake Banksy exhibition The Mystery of Banksy – A Genius Mind in Malmö, Sweden. Photos: R.A.
Pictures of the piece circulated for a few days in the media, and finally, on 24 May, Banksy confirmed the work on his Instagram account.
Photo: Banksy’s Instagram
Banksy hit the Venice Biennale uninvited with a contemporary message. In his own words on Instagram:
“Setting out my stall at the Venice Biennale. Despite being the largest and most prestigious art event in the world, for some reason I’ve never been invited.”
Photo: http://www.banksy.co.uk
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Banksy’s stay in Paris has been a productive one. On 28 June, Banksy’s Instagram confirmed eight new stencils.
As reported by Street Art News (www.streetartnews.net), the following two pieces did appear in Paris at the same time and in the same area, but they haven’t been confirmed yet. Judging by style, execution and political content, they ought to be authentic.
Four stencils appeared on 13 December in “The Jungle”, a Calais refugee camp. Since Dismaland, it’s clear that Banksy’s preferred theme is the refugee situation in Europe.
In 2004, probably in October, Banksy entered the Louvre, where he hung his version of the Mona Lisa. There is no record of how long the piece lasted.
In the first years of the decade, besides UK & US, Banksy went to Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Tokyo, Paris and Israel, where he painted the first stencilled version of the iconic “Love is in the air”.
Banksy unofficial 