Banksy Hits NYC Part 31

Well today is the final day of Banksy’s month long street art show taking place in New York and with it the final piece of Better Out Than In popped up in Queens. The balloon lettered throw up appeared around 6:30 a.m. and of course is already drawing massive crowds. The famed Bristol artist also gifted a design that’s intended to be printed on a shirt to commemorate the show, as is always the case with the provided graphic it’s free and up to you to do the printing. Funnily enough it resembles my own graphic I threw up for an earlier story on the exhibition.

For my money I’ve most certainly enjoyed the circus, some of the pieces are up there with the artists best works to date, rumor has it the LA is is up next for the month of December but only time will tell for sure.

Banksy had this to say about his experience of the thirty plus days spent in the Big Apple…

"Well, this is the last day of the show, and I'd like to say we're going out on a high note. And, I guess in a way, we are. [Cue "New York, New York"] This is a sideways take on the ubiquitous spray-painted bubble lettering that actually floats. It's an homage of sorts to the most prevalent form of graffiti in the city that invented it for the modern era. Or, it's another Banksy piece that's full of hot air.

So, what does the artist hope to have achieved with this so-called residency? "If just one child has been inspired to pick up a can of paint and make some art--well that would be statistically disappointing considering how much work I put in."

Banksy asserts that outside is where art should live, amongst us. And rather than street art being a "fad," maybe it's the last thousand years of art history that are the blip. When art came inside in service of the church and institutions. But art's rightful place is on the cave walls of our communities. Where it can act as a public service, provoke debate, voice concerns, forge identities.

The world we live in today is run, visually at least, by traffic signs, billboards, and planning committees. Is that it? Don't we want to live in a world made of art, not just decorated by it?

Thanks for coming.

[Fireworks]"

Banksy Hits NYC Part 30

Tomorrow should be the final day of Banksy’s month long Better Out than In street art exhibition in New York but we still have today’s to share, it came late in the evening and is a high profile Yankee’s stadium stencil piece.

In other news yesterday "re-appropriated" canvas has reached a current bid of $310,200.00 which when all said and done will go to the Housing Works organization.

Banksy Hits NYC Part 29

Only a couple days left of Banksy’s month long Better Out than In street art exhibition in New York. Today’s piece is called “The Banality of the Banality of Evil“ and is a high jacked/repurposed oil on canvas that’s located at the Housing Works thrift store on 157 East 23^rd street. The painting will eventually go on auction with the money raised going back into the organization who's mission is "to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain our efforts."

Banksy Hits NYC Part 28

It’s Monday and with it Banksy is running the final lap of his Better Out than In street art exhibition in New York. The latest piece popped up in Coney Island and features a robot character we haven’t seen before, what’s in store for tomorrow?

Banksy Hits NYC Part's 25, 26, 27

Weekend fun and more from Banksy who on Friday launched his latest animatronic creation as his month long street art residency here in New York rapidly approaches the finish line. Check the video below to see the grim reaper enjoying himself in a bumper car, the piece was set up for public display behind a cage in the Bowery where is lived for two days. A suitable soundtrack was provided on site by both an accordion player and a recording of Blue Oyster Cult’s classic “Don't Fear the Reaper” which traded on and off throughout the day. Those who made it over to see the piece in person might have noticed the man hiding inside the door structure controlling the bumper car via remote control.

Saturday saw a simple tagged message on the back of a truck in Sunset Park that Banksy cheekily proclaimed to be an alternative New York bumper slogan, many would agree.

Sunday ended up being an impromptu piece in Greenpoint Brooklyn after the planned op-ed column in the New York Times was declined for publishing by the institution. Of course Banksy provided the unpublished article to the public regardless which was a comment on ground zero’s everlasting eyesore of a construction site that you can read below.

On a side note the free morning commute newspaper here in NY, AM NY, had an extremely poorly and under researched opinion piece today that is worth the read if you don't want to learn anything new or perhaps care for an opinion that might possibly be akin to someone as well versed in the subject matter as let’s say your local bodega owner.