Banksy's works go on display in his first solo exhibition in 14 years

Banksy goes official: Elusive graffiti street artist’s works go on display in his first solo exhibition in 14 years (and he’s put his toilet on show too)

• A new show in Glasgow is set to be Banksy’s first official exhibition in 14 years
• The exhibition will show a selection of the artist’s stencils for the first time ever 

A new exhibition showing the works of Banksy is set to open in Glasgow this weekend – in what will be the artist’s first official exhibition in 14 years.

The Cut & Run show, at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), is the first exhibition to be officially authorised by the elusive street artist in more than a decade.

The exhibition will cover 25 years of Banksy’s career and is set to feature a selection of the artist’s stencils for the first ever time.

The Glasgow show will also put an array of artefacts collected collected throughout Banksy’s career – including the artist’s own toilet.  

Banksy said: ‘I’ve kept these stencils hidden away for years, mindful they could be used as evidence in a charge of criminal damage.

The Cut and Run show at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) is the first exhibition to be officially endorsed by Banksy in 14 years

The Glasgow exhibition will show a selection of Banksy’s stencils for the first time ever

The exhibition will display a model showing the way through which Girl With Balloon was shredded at a Sotheby’s auction in 2018 using a device hidden in the frame

Glasgow was chosen as the location due to the traffic cone that has sat on the Duke of Wellington statue’s head for around 40 years outside GOMA

The Glasgow show will include the stencil used to paint the image of a female acrobat on a damaged building in Ukraine

READ MORE: Who is Banksy? All the theories about the anonymous graffiti artist

 

‘But that moment seems to have passed, so now I’m exhibiting them in a gallery as works of art. I’m not sure which is the greater crime.’

Various unsanctioned exhibitions of Banksy’s work have taken place around the world in recent years.

However, Banksy said that ‘while the unauthorised Banksy shows might look like sweepings from my studio floor, Cut & Run really is the actual sweepings from my studio floor.’

The artist is now describing the exhibition – which will show stencils used throughout his career from 1998 to the present day – ’25 years card labour’.

As for his choice of Glasgow as the location for the show, Banksy said the traffic cone which famously sits on the head of the Duke of Wellington statue outside the gallery, was behind the pick. 

A gallery label for the show explains: ‘For anyone who isn’t aware – the statue out the front has had a cone on its head continuously for the past 40-odd years. 

‘Despite the best efforts of the council and police, every time one is removed another takes its place. 

‘This might sound absurd and pretentious (just wait until you see the rest of the exhibition), but it’s my favourite work of art in the UK and the reason I’ve brought the show here.’ 

The Banksy exhibition will be shown at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)

The Cut and Run show will display the bullet proof jacket worn by Stormzy at Glastonbury

Banksy’s Met Ball piece (pictured) will also be on display at the Glasgow Cut and Run show

The exhibition will show an array of Banksy’s stencils for the first time ever due to the artist having kept them secret over fears they could be used as ‘evidence’

Pranksters have continuously placed a traffic cone on the statue’s head since the 1980s 

READ MORE: Council REMOVES part of Banksy’s Valentine’s Day masterpiece ‘for health and safety reasons’: Fury as officials carry away dumped fridge-freezer that was part of graffiti artist’s domestic abuse painting 

The stencils on show in the exhibition include those for Banksy’s most famous pieces.

Those include Girl With Balloon, which appeared on walls throughout London from 2002 onwards, and Kissing Coppers which appeared on the wall of The Prince Albert Pub in Brighton, East Sussex.

It also features a model that shows the way through which the modern artist managed to shred a version Girl With Balloon during an auction at Sotheby’s in London in 2018.

The Banksy artwork hit the headlines when it partially self-destructed at the conclusion of an auction in which it had been sold for £1.1 million.

The canvas was passed through a secret shredder hidden inside its frame, leaving the bottom half in tatters and just a singly red balloon left on the painting. 

The artist subsequently renamed the work Love Is In The Bin and later it sold at auction for £18.58 million in 2021.

The Glasgow show will run for almost three months from 18 June to 28 August and could tour in the future if it proves popular. 

The last official Banksy exhibition was shown more than a decade ago in the artist’s home town of Bristol.

The exhibition at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in 2009 ran under the title ‘Banksy vs. Bristol Museum. 

Pranksters have consistently placed traffic cones on the statues head for decades

The Cut and Run show will run from 18 June to 28 August and could tour if popular

The Glasgow Cut and Run show will be Banksy’s first official solo show in 14 years 

An array of Banksy’s stencils will be put on display for the first time ever alongside his works

A stencil for a work that appeared on a damaged building in Ukraine, showing a female gymnast balancing on a pile of rubble, is also on show.

The artwork appeared on a wall in the Ukrainian town of Borodianka near Kyiv, alongside another showing a young boy judo flipping Vladimir Putin. 

The stab-proof Union Jack vest worn by British rapper Stormzy when he headlined Glastonbury in 2019 will also be displayed.

GoMA museum manager Gareth James said the exhibition is a ‘perfect fit for GoMA and the city’.

‘This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with an artist who has been exciting and challenging people around the world with their work over the past 25 years,’ he told The Herald. 

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