The work of the artist Banksy is currently on view in the touring U.S. exhibition, “The Art of Banksy: Without Limits.” The unauthenticated exhibit, put together from donated pieces, “Without Limits” is curated by Martin Biallas and Guillermo Quintana, and opened earlier this month in Atlanta in the once vacant, gutted Underground Atlanta district. The venue serves as a fitting site for the ever-elusive street artist’s work to be displayed as it was intended to be seen—along pavement and divorced from the sterility of art museums.
The show features more than 155 pieces of the artist’s work, many dated from the early 2000s, with the very latest ones from 2015. Banksy’s practice serves as a critical punctuation towards consumerism and authority throughout the 21st century.
Banksy, “Sale Ends,” 2006 in Underground Atlanta, photo by Lola Scott Art / SEE Global Entertainment.
The exhibition is made up of a flood of paintings, installations, and wall-to-wall murals. A large screen print, titled Sale Ends, depicts black-and-white cloaked figures kneeling, likening itself to the pious worship with which Western society regards commodity fetishism. Flower Thrower, a double-sided print, shows a protester poised to throw a bouquet of flowers, clarifying that the goal of activism is often to better the systems that so often victimize innocent people. Rife with remarks about wealth and violence, Banksy’s work is powerful to look at, but leaves the audience thinking.
Banksy, “Flower Thrower,” 2003 in Underground Atlanta, photo by Lola Scott Art / SEE Global Entertainment.
Remarked Biallas of the exhibition, “I’m completely alive with the messaging. What we’re trying to do is raise awareness of Banksy.” Indeed, the curators aim to bring Banksy to a new, younger American audience in a space and time where his messaging is as relevant now as it was when the work was originally made.
“The Art of Banksy: Without Limits” will be on view in Atlanta until October 29 before moving to Miami and then Charlotte.
The Art of Banksy in Underground Atlanta, photo by Lola Scott Art / SEE Global Entertainment.
