The controversial Banksy exhibition The Art of Banksy, which has toured the world and came to Melbourne in 2016, is coming to Sydney this September.
The exhibition will feature 80 original Banksy pieces, including some of his most iconic works, such as Girl With Red Balloon, Flower Thrower and Rude Copper.
Controversial and completely unauthorised, The Art of Banksy exhibition is coming to Syndey this September.
What makes the exhibition so controversial is that Banksy himself has never given the curator, Steve Lazarides, permission to put on the show. Lazarides is the artist’s first art dealer, former manager, and photographer, who worked with Banksy when he was employed as picture director of Sleaze Nation magazine.
“The show is definitely unauthorised,” Lazarides told Broadsheet in 2016. “One hundred percent, completely and utterly unsanctioned.
“But if I didn’t break this work out of storage and collectors’ homes it would never be seen. I think a lot of the work he made during this period 15 years ago has more resonance now than when they were painted.”
Lazarides has opened up his own private collection and brought together borrowed pieces from private collectors to create the exhibition. The show will bring together some of his most well-known works, along with lesser-known works and a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creation of Banksy’s artworks and process.
He is also one of the very few people who knows the well-kept secret that is the elusive artist’s identity. “It was fun for a few years, then it got really boring after a while,” he says. “Everyone thinks [the anonymity] was this insanely clever marketing ploy. It wasn’t. It was self-preservation. In Bristol at the time the authorities had a pretty hardcore attitude towards street art. It wasn’t as easy as it is nowadays to go and put something up on the street. So the only way for him not to get arrested was to be very, very secretive.”
The Art of Banksy will be at the Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, from Friday September 13. Tickets go on sale on the 2nd of August at 4pm, but presale is happening now. Tickets available here.
