Banksy Limitless. A new exhibition of the street artist's work
Controversial. Provocative. Challenging. Fearless. One thing’s for sure. You could never describe the work of the artist known as Banksy boring. Or say it’s easy to ignore. Now a new exhibition has brought together hundreds of the works of this elusive artist, whose creations are as much in your face as he is lurking in the shadows.
One of the exhibits in the new Banksy Limitless exhibition
These are some of the highlights Banksy’s career:
He’s been active on the graffiti scene since the early 1990s when his trademark stencil designs were first associated with a group of underground street artists in Bristol. His first large stencil mural - The Mild Mild West, created in 1999 - showed a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police.
The Mild Mild West by Banksy
He moved to London in the early 2000s and in 2002 created his iconic ‘Girl With Balloon’ on the steps of Waterloo Bridge.
Girl With Balloon by Banksy (think the 20 on the balloon is an addition by someone else)
In 2006, another of his most recognisable creations appeared on a wall on Chalk Farm Road in North London
English Maid by Banksy
As his work drew more attention, he became more ambitious, and started creating pieces in cities all over the world, each one increasingly becoming a media event and bringing him more international recognition. Exhibitions of his work were sell outs and his pieces began to sell for huge amounts. Brad Pitt, Paul Smith and Christina Aguilera are all Banksy owners.
In 2010 a documentary called Exit Through the Gift Shop, showing him at work (albeit always with his identity carefully concealed) won Best Documentary of the Year at the Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Bafta.
Exit Through the Gift Shop, the award-winning documentary about Banksy
In 2015 he took over a derelict seafront lido in Weston-super-mare and turned it into an interactive installation he called Dismaland - an anti-amusement park, or bemusement park, containing works by himself and 50 other contemporary artists including Damien Hirst ,which satirised mainstream theme parks.
Dismaland anti-amusement park
In one of his most theatrical pieces of performance art, in 2018 he staged the live shredding of his Girl With Balloon stencil just minutes after it was sold for £1m. A video about features in the exhibition.
in 2022 he created murals all across Ukraine each showing the strength and resilience of its war-battered people, several of which are recreated in the exhibition.
Most recently, in 2024, Banksy made a surprise return to London, creating a series of stencilled animals which appeared across the capital over nine consecutive days.
London Zoo, a series of Banksy works around London in 2024
The hundreds of works that feature in this exhibition are displayed across a sprawling variety of rooms and include plenty of his immediately recognisable pieces
Clockwise from top right: Love is in The Air 2003, Stop and Search 2007, Devolved Parliament,2009, Kissing Coppers 2004
And many I certainly hadn’t seen before, including these from a series he called Crude Oils
Some of the Crude Oils series by Banksy
Whether you find Banksy’s work difficult and offensive or stimulating and challenging (or, most likely, a mixture of both) Banksy Limitless gives a fascinating insight into the career, motivations and catalysts for the work of this never-less-than provocative artist. The exhibition is at Sussex Mansions, 79-85 Old Brompton Road (less than 5 mins walk from South Kensington tube) and will run until September next year (2026). Find information on opening times and ticket prices HERE
Other posts you’ll enjoy
Body Politic - an exhibition of Anthony Gormley’s most obviously political work
Anish Kapoor at Houghton Hall - monumental sculptures in a historic setting
