Turf War (Banksy)

Last updated

"Turf War" was the first major exhibition by artist Banksy, staged in a warehouse on Kingsland Road in London's East End in 2003.

Contents

Description

The exhibition was held in an East London warehouse over several days in July 2003, and featured painted animals, including pigs in police colours, sheep in "concentration camp stripes", and a cow with Andy Warhol's face. [1] [2] [3] The New Yorker described the show as "a Barnumesque spectacle, staged at a secret location", and noted the inclusion of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II as a chimpanzee. [4] The show also displayed vandalized classic oil paintings. [5] The exhibition was partly sponsored by the fashion brand Puma, who produced collaborative t-shirts and sneakers featuring 'Turf War' branding. [6]

The exhibition's location was not revealed until one day before it began. [7] "Turf War" marked Banksy's first gallery show in the United Kingdom. [8]

Reception

Banksy biographer Will Ellsworth-Jones regards "Turf War" as Banksy's "breakthrough" exhibition. [9] [10] Artnet said the exhibition was "one of England's best -- and briefest" of the season. [11] The exhibition, which featured live animals, sparked protests by animal rights group. One activist chained herself to the railings surrounding a painted cow, despite approvals the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. [12] [13] [14] Jamie Oliver attended the exhibition. [15]

In 2014 and 2015, Business Insider 's Christian Storm and Jack Sommer mentioned the exhibition in their overviews, "25 of Banksy's Cleverest Works" and "Banksy's most clever works", respectively. [16] [17] Some of the exhibition's artworks were put up for sale by Steve Lazarides in 2018. [18] [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banksy</span> Pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Choe</span> American painter (born 1976)

David Choe is an American artist, musician, actor, and former journalist and podcast host from Los Angeles. Choe's work appears in a wide variety of urban culture and entertainment contexts. He has illustrated and written for magazines including Hustler, Ray Gun and Vice. He has an ongoing relationship with the Asian pop culture store-cum-magazine Giant Robot.

Artists Anonymous are an art group based in Berlin and London. They were founded in 2001 during their studies at Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) at the classes of Georg Baselitz and Stan Douglas. They finished studying in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Yeo</span> British artist (born 1970)

Jonathan Yeo is a British artist who rose to international prominence in his early 20s as a contemporary portraitist, having painted Kevin Spacey, Dennis Hopper, Cara Delevingne, Damien Hirst, Prince Philip, Erin O'Connor, Tony Blair, and David Cameron among others. GQ has called him 'one of the world's most in-demand portraitists'. He was educated at Westminster School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zevs (artist)</span> French street artist (born 1977)

Zevs is a French street artist, best known for his trademark "liquidation" technique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vhils</span> Portuguese graffiti and street artist

Vhils is the tag name of Portuguese graffiti and street artist Alexandre Manuel Dias Farto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr. Brainwash</span> Los Angeles-based street artist born in France

Thierry Guetta, best known by his moniker Mr. Brainwash, is a French-born Los Angeles-based street artist. According to the 2010 Banksy-directed film Exit Through the Gift Shop, Guetta was a proprietor of a used clothing store, and amateur videographer who was first introduced to street art by his cousin, the street artist Invader, and who filmed street artists through the 2000s and became an artist in his own right in a matter of weeks after an off-hand suggestion from Banksy.

<i>Slave Labour</i> (mural) Painting by Banksy (street artist)

Slave Labour is a mural that was painted by a British graffiti artist, Banksy, on the side wall of a Poundland store in Wood Green, London in May 2012. The artwork is 48 inches (122 cm) high by 60 inches (152 cm) wide, and depicts an urchin child at a sewing machine assembling a bunting of Union Jack patches. The work was a protest against the use of sweatshops to manufacture Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics memorabilia in 2012.

<i>Better Out Than In</i> 2013 art installation by Banksy

Better Out Than In was a residency undertaken by pseudonymous graffiti artist and political activist Banksy in New York City during October 2013. Banksy unveiled at least one work of art daily, documenting it on both a dedicated website and an Instagram account. The majority of the works were stencil graffiti and chiefly political, a distinctive characteristic of Banksy. Other pieces and multimedia exhibits toyed with dark humor and satire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Lazarides</span>

Steve Lazarides is a British-Greek Cypriot publisher, photographer, collector and curator. He has helped popularise street art and underground art.

Polly Morgan is a London-based British artist who uses taxidermy to create works of art.

Barely Legal was a show by graffiti artist Banksy, held in an industrial warehouse in Los Angeles, California, in 2006. The free show was held over the weekend of 16 September 2006.

<i>Girl with Balloon</i> Series of murals in London by artist Banksy

Girl with Balloon is a series of stencil murals around London by the graffiti artist Banksy, started in 2002. They depict a young girl with her hand extended toward a red heart-shaped balloon carried away by the wind. The locations for this work include street murals in Shoreditch and the South bank in London on the Waterloo Bridge and other murals were around London, though none remain there.

<i>The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill</i> Art installation by Banksy

The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill is an art installation by Banksy. Held in Greenwich Village in 2008, it marked the graffiti artist's first official exhibition in New York. The installation took the form of a fake pet shop and aimed to question "our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming".

Remi Kabaka Jr. is a British record producer, art director, percussionist and voice actor best known as the drummer and producer for British virtual band Gorillaz. He became a music producer for the band in 2015 after several years of providing the voice of Russel Hobbs and was listed as an A&R producer alongside Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett in the 2019 documentary Gorillaz: Reject False Icons. In 2007, Kabaka created the audiovisual collective Gorillaz Sound System.

Corrupted Oil - Jerry, also called Crude Oil Jerry, is an artwork by graffiti artist Banksy, using stencil of a cartoon mouse character Jerry on an oil painting.

Jeff Gillette is a contemporary American artist based in Southern California. He is best known for his subversive 'slumscape' paintings ironically featuring Disney characters. He is often cited as the inspiration for Banksy's 2015 Dismaland theme park installation, in which he was a featured artist.

Show Me the Monet is an oil on canvas painting by graffiti artist Banksy. The work is an appropriation of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series, specifically his 1919 Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas. Banksy has appropriated Monet’s paintings to now depict a traffic cone and two shopping carts polluting and submerging into the lake. The work is believed to be a commentary on the negative impacts of capitalism and consumerism within society. Show Me the Monet exists within Banksy’s Crude Oil series. The work was sold in October 2020 by Sotheby’s. The work was sold for £7.5 million.

References

  1. ↑ "Animals sprayed by graffiti artist". BBC News. 18 July 2003. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  2. ↑ Irish, Oliver (19 July 2003). "Shock of the moo". The Observer. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  3. ↑ "Banksy: The joker". The Independent. 23 September 2006. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  4. ↑ Collins, Lauren (7 May 2007). "Banksy Was Here". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  5. ↑ Bracken, Matt (17 October 2013). "Banksy". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  6. ↑ "Burner Prize 2003".
  7. ↑ "Banksy: A guerilla in our midst". The Independent. 6 August 2005. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  8. ↑ Hattenstone, Simon (17 July 2003). "Something to spray". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  9. ↑ Ellsworth-Jones, Will (2013). Banksy: The Man Behind the Wall. St. Martins. p. 126. ISBN   9781250025746 . Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  10. ↑ Ellsworth-Jones, Will (February 2013). "The Story Behind Banksy". Smithsonian. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  11. ↑ La Placa, Joe. "London Calling". Artnet . Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  12. ↑ Sen, Raka (17 October 2013). "The Art Evolution of Banksy". Complex . Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  13. ↑ Abrams, Amah-Rose (12 November 2015). "Banksy: Artist, Activist, Agitator". Arnet. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  14. ↑ "You Are What You Read". Art21 Magazine. 4 March 2010.
  15. ↑ "Hottest artist around". Evening Standard . 18 July 2003. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  16. ↑ Storm, Christian (24 October 2014). "25 of Banksy's Cleverest Works". Business Insider . Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  17. ↑ Sommer, Jack (21 August 2015). "24 of Banksy's most clever works". Business Insider. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  18. ↑ Cascone, Sarah (30 May 2018). "The Biggest Banksy Sale Ever? Dealer Steve Lazarides Plans an Unsanctioned Show of the Artist's 'Golden Years'". Artnet. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  19. ↑ "Banksy's records will tumble in 'greatest hits' show, former dealer says". theartnewspaper.com. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.