Identity of infamous street artist Banksy finally 'uncovered' after years-long investigation
The identity of the famous street artist that is Banksy may have just been revealed...
Banksy's work dates back to the 90s, with his first majorly recognized piece being 'The Mild Mild West' in Bristol, UK.
One of his best known pieces now is 2002's 'Girl with Balloon', while 'Flower Thrower', 'Choose Your Weapon', 'Laugh Now', and 'Kissing Coppers' are also world-renowned.
A significant proportion of the artist's work is in the UK, but he's also done some of his graffiti art in the US, France, Jerusalem, and Ukraine.
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It's long been presumed that Banksy is British, but his identity has remained a mystery for decades. This may no longer be the case, however.
Following Banksy's 2022 artwork done in Kyiv, Ukraine, during the ongoing conflict between the country and Russia, Reuters has been investigating the ever-illusive artist and the outlet now believes that it has successfully worked out just who Banksy is.
According to Reuters, Banksy is Robin Gunningham. A key piece to the puzzle was police records in the US noting that a man with this moniker was arrested in September 2000 for defacing defaced a billboard atop a building on 675 Hudson Street, New York City.
But Gunningham may have legally changed his name since then. Per the report, it has been suggested that Gunningham now goes by David Jones (as of 2008).
It's likely he chose this name – if he did indeed change his name – as it's one of the most popular names in the UK, making it the perfect disguise for the mysterious man.
"In 2017, for example, there were about 6,000 men named David Jones in the UK, according to data analyzed by GBG, an identity-data intelligence company. David Jones also is the given name of David Bowie, whose Ziggy Stardust alter ego inspired a Banksy portrait of Queen Elizabeth," Reuters writes.
The investigation found that around the time that numerous pieces of work appeared in Ukraine in 2022, a man named David Jones had entered the country on October 28.
A source who spoke to the news outlet confirmed that the birthdate on the passport used by this David Jones has the same birthday of Gunningham.
Seemingly confirming that the artist changed his name, Banksy’s former manager, Stephen Lazarides, said to Reuters: "There is no Robin Gunningham. The name you've got I killed years ago."
Meanwhile, Banksy’s long-time lawyer, Mark Stephens, issued a statement stating that Banksy 'does not accept that many of the details contained within your enquiry are correct'.
He didn't confirm or deny the identity of the artist, but still urged Reuters to not publish the report as doing so would 'violate the artist’s privacy, interfere with his art and put him in danger'.
Stephens went on say of his client working under a pseudonym for all these years: "It protects freedom of expression by allowing creators to speak truth to power without fear of retaliation, censorship or persecution – particularly when addressing sensitive issues such as politics, religion or social justice."
A timeline of the rise of Banksy:
1990s
Banksy's artwork starts cropping up around parts of Bristol, UK.
One of his first pieces in the city was some graffiti art mocking Vladimir Lenin. He used a stencil of the late dictator with a punk mohawk and hoop earring.
Arguably one of his first, well-known pieces was 'Mild Mild West', which depicted a teddy bear tossing a molatov cocktail at policemen in riot gear.
2000s
It was the the millenium that Banksy's famous stencils of monkeys and rats started to appear across London and other parts of the UK.
'Laugh Now' emerged in 2002 after the artist was commission by Ocean Rooms nightclub in Brighton. The artwork shows a chimp wearing a sandwich board that reads: "Laugh now, but one day we'll be in charge."
2002 also marked the release of Banksy's most famous graffiti art to date — 'Girl with Balloon'. This first appeared on London's Waterloo Bridge and later in Shoreditch.
Other notable pieces by Banksy in the 2000s include: 'Kissing Coppers', 'Grim Reaper', 'Flower Thrower', and 'One Nation Under CCTV'.
2010s and onwards
Banksy's 'Gorilla in a Pink Mask' was debuted in 2011 and it went on to be accidentally painted over. Fortunately the bold piece of work, located in Eastville, Bristol, was restored shortly after.
It was also in the 2010s that the artist started to move his artwork even further out of London in Bristol. In 2018 he died a piece called 'Season's Greetings' in Wales. This depicted the contents of a large trash can being burned while a child stuck their tongue out to eat the ashes, mistaking them for snowflakes.
The following year he did another festive piece in Birmingham. A homeless man was sleeping on a bench in the city and Banksy graffitied two reindeer painted to look like they are pulling the real public bench.
In 2022, Banksy's work then started to appear in Ukraine. He did a series of seven, anti-war street art murals across the country, many of which were in Kyiv.
The artist graffitied on the wreckage of damaged buildings caused by Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia.
Niamh Shackleton