The art world is surrounded by mysteries, however, one of the biggest and most controversial of our time might be Banksy\u2019s identity. The British graffiti artist has become a reference for provocative and anti-capitalist street art. He uses his art as a way to enter activism and criticize today\u2019s society, and though his artworks have appeared in several places all around the world, to this day his identity is still unknown.<\/p>\n
The fascination for his ability to remain anonymous has come to the point that art experts and fans have applied police techniques to come up with an identity. Moreover, Banksy himself has done everything in his or her power to remain unidentified and confuse those who try to unveil his true face.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISING – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, this hasn\u2019t stopped people to wonder which is Banksy\u2019s real identity and even though there are many theories that border on absurdity, there are a couple that could really point to who is the man or woman behind those graffitis that has captivated the art world. These are some of the most plausible theories about Banksy\u2019s true identity.<\/p>\n There is a theory that claims that Banksy is not an individual street artist, but rather a collective with a presence in different parts of the world, the reason why it has been easier to spread their art in several cities and not to concentrate all in one.<\/p>\n ADVERTISING – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/span><\/p>\n According to this theory, the collective believes that the streets belong to everyone and that anyone can use its walls to express themselves.<\/p>\n Although there is no real evidence to point at a Banksy collective, it doesn\u2019t sound so crazy.<\/p>\n ADVERTISING – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/span><\/p>\n In 2016, criminologist at London\u2019s Queen Mary University used a technique called geographic profiling to try to identify the real Banksy.<\/p>\n Geographic profiling is a statistical technique used in criminology but has recently been used to trace infectious diseases, that take large sets of locations and run through various groupings of those locations to find \u201chot spots\u201d in every city it is applied to.<\/p>\n ADVERTISING – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/span><\/p>\n That is how researchers took 140 artworks in London and Bristol identified as being Banksy\u2019s property. It resulted in \u201cgeoprofiling\u201d a candidate named Robin Gunningham, who in 2008 was named by The Mail on Sunday as Banksy\u2019s real identity.<\/p>\n However, Banksy\u2019s PR team denied the results of both The Mail\u2019s investigation and the geoprofiling analysis.<\/p>\n ADVERTISING – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/span><\/p>\n One of the strongest and, let\u2019s face it, coolest theories on Banksy\u2019s identity is the one that claims that the street artist is in fact Robert Del Naja, leader of the British band Massive Attack.<\/p>\n This theory is backed up by a correlation between concert dates and new artworks appearing in different cities. For example, Massive Attack gave a concert in Los Angeles in 2006, coincidentally a Banksy exhibition was going to be open one week before it. The same happened in 2008 when Del Naja was making a documentary about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans while at the same time Banksy left some of his stencils around the very same city.<\/p>\n ADVERTISING – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/span><\/p>\n However, the strongest evidence might come from DJ Goldie who in 2017, during an interview referred to Banksy as \u201cRob\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s up to him or her. If the street artist is willing to lose all of the copyright of the artworks, then we\u2019ll never know the real identity and that is because in 2021 a new ruling by the European Union Intellectual Property Office stripped Banksy of their trademark rights to two art pieces with the excuse of not having a real identity to whom attribute the copyright.<\/p>\nBanksy is not a person but rather a collective<\/h2>\n
A man identified by police techniques<\/h2>\n
Banksy is a prolific musician doing graffiti in his spare time<\/h2>\n
Will we ever know Banksy\u2019s real identity?<\/h2>\n