Banksy Exposed: The Real Facts About The Artist Known As “Banksy”

Aside from the humor and poignancy of Banksy’s work, what people find attractive about the artist is his mystique. There have been numerous claims as to who he really is. Since his rise to fame, various newspapers have claimed that they now had Banksy exposed. However, none of these claims have been unequivocally confirmed or denied by the elusive artist and those connected to him. Even today, people aren’t sure who Banky is. Most claim, however, that his identity is not really important. They are satisfied with his art and his reputation.

Banksy Photographs

There are two alleged photos of Banksy that have gotten a lot of media attention, one taken in Kingston, Jamaica and one taken in Bethnal, East London. Other photos purportedly of the artist have turned up here and there, but these two are the most believable. Several news agencies have used them, especially the one taken in Jamaica, to track down the true identity of the artist.

One of the earliest alleged Banksy photographs is the one that appeared on a Jamaican website. The face in the image is clear, unlike other images where what is shown of her face is not enough to identify the person in it. The photographer reportedly claimed that Banksys arrogance pushed him to expose the artist’s face.

In 2007, a passerby allegedly took another photo of Banksy and saw someone painting graffiti in Bethnal Green, east London. The mural is a piece that Banksy claims to have done. It depicts a painter and a simple representation of a yellow flower as a continuation of the yellow markings on the streets of London. Some people say there are similarities between the man in this photograph and the man in the Jamaican image.

The most recent photograph of the artist to appear was taken in 2001 in Mexico. Banksy is shown painting a mural. The lower part of her face is covered by what appears to be a red scarf. The rest have been intentionally pixelated to hide who he is. The artist himself published this image in his book Freedom Through Football.

Roberto banks

The first Banksy identity” with an accompanying biography is the identity of Robert Banks. Said to be someone from Bristol born between 1974 and 1978. This biography of the artist says that he received no formal art training. He is said to have learned his trade making rock memorabilia. His anti-establishment image is said to have started when he was in school and was rewarded with detention and eventually expulsion. Graffiti began to interest him at the age of 14.

robin gunningham

The person who is most likely the real Banksy is someone named Robin Gunningham, according to the British news agency The Daily Mail. A reporter from the Daily Mail toured Bristol and showed the photo of Jamaica to the people there. The answers he got led him to Robin Gunningham, whose father was a contract manager and whose mother was a secretary. This Banksy was said to have gone to an expensive and elite secondary school, the Bristol Cathedral School. The Daily Mail published this claim in 2008.

The exhibit’s writer, James Tapper, said that he believed this was the real Banksy because when he tracked down where Gunningham went, Banksy had been there at around the same time period. Gunningham even lived in places close to where Banksy did some of his shows. A classmate of his said that he was already good at art when they went to school together. He also claimed that Banksy was also a member of the school’s rugby team. Tapper stated that both Banksy and Robin Gunningham are slippery. There are also many parallels between what the reporter discovered and what Banksy says about himself in his books, movies, and interviews. This, in the eyes of the reporters, further strengthened his claim.

Lady. banksy

In 2011, the Daily Mail featured another figure in Banksys’ life, his wife. Actually, she was the wife of Robin Gunningham. Her name is Joy Millward. It is said that she met Banksy in 2003 while working as a researcher for a Labor MP. They were married in Las Vegas in 2006. The article claims that she, like Gunningham, was raised in a comfortable lifestyle far from the implications of Banksys art. She is also a very slippery person, just like Banksy.

These Daily Mail articles created a storm of controversy among those who admire Banksys art. The reports are seen as crude attempts to diminish the artist’s credibility as an anti-establishment graffiti artist. Many felt that the lives of private citizens were unduly invaded for the very superficial reason of trying to knock the famous artist down a peg or two. A considerable number expressed the opinion that they are not interested in knowing who Banksy is in real life because they know him through his work and his various escapades.

He is a group, not a person.

There is another strong speculation apart from the two mentioned. One is that Banksy is not a single person but a group of street performers. This is based on images of Banksy graffitiing walls in the West Bank. Other people, whose identities are hidden, are seen working with the one she is painting the picture on. They can be assistants or some of Banksys street artist friends, but they can all also be the artist known as Banksy.

the real banksy

People who have inadvertently conversed with the artist while working on a piece uniformly say that he is a nice and likeable person. There is only one case where someone claimed that he was arrogant. This is not surprising. No one can please everyone. There is always someone out there who will be put off by even the best person. In Banksys graffiti war” with Team Robbo, the artist is seen taking the first steps to reduce the tension between them. This hints at the person behind the mystique.

People who claim to know Banksy and have written books about him give insight into who he is through his eyes. For Robert Clarke, author of Seven Years with Banksy, the artist appears as a crusader who works to bring to light the evils and contradictions of this world through art. He is portrayed as someone who has made it a way of life to stay out of the public eye by being as inconspicuous as possible. On the other hand, in Will Ellsworth-Jones’ book The Man Behind The Wall, he is shown as a person with his own dilemmas and inconsistencies, the most telling of which is his succumbing” to the lure of commercializing his work and becoming more by registering them in art galleries and auctions.

The question

So who is Banksy really? Is it Robert Banks or Robin Gunningham or someone else entirely? Has the media really exposed Banksy? Maybe. Of course, none of the claims have been explicitly confirmed or denied. Even Steve Lazarides, Banksy’s agent, claims that he doesn’t know who the artist is. Thus, the mystical Banksy remains and most people like it that way. The Banksy you know is the one you see in the artist’s satirically ironic and subversive anti-establishment graffiti.