The British graffiti artist known for his political stencils is Banksy.
Banksy is the pseudonym of an England-based street artist, political activist, and filmmaker whose real identity has never been publicly confirmed. Active since the 1990s, he became known for combining quickly executed stencils with dark humour, short slogans, and pointed commentary on war, capitalism, policing, migration, and other social issues.
His work grew from Bristol’s underground graffiti and music scene. One of his earliest known large murals, The Mild Mild West, appeared in Bristol in 1997 and shows a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at riot police. His recurring subjects include rats, apes, soldiers, children, policemen, and elderly people, often arranged in visually simple scenes with a sharply satirical twist.
Stencil-making also explains how Banksy can work rapidly in public while protecting anonymity: designs are prepared on card or acetate, cut out, and spray-painted onto a surface. Mr. Brainwash, Shepard Fairey, and Blek le Rat are associated with street art or stencil culture, but Banksy is the canonical answer for this description. His 2018 Sotheby’s shredding stunt further cemented his reputation for turning art-world institutions into part of the artwork.