The elusive street artist Banksy is front and center at a new museum in lower Manhattan dedicated to his paintings.
The Banksy Museum opened to the public on Wednesday (May 15) with a permanent exhibition of 160 works that are curated recreations of original Banksy works. It says it is the largest such exposition in the world.
Organizers of the exposition are mindful of the potential paradox at the heart of their project; how do you celebrate a street artist who shuns institutions?
For museum director Hazis Vardar, the answer is to take the question head on.
"Everything here has been created by anonymous artists also," Vardar explained. "We have done everything on the wall so we cannot sell them. We respect the spirit of street art… the choice is to recreate the art of Banksy, which is, for me, much more important for all people."
Like-minded projects have also opened in Barcelona, Brussels, Krakow and Paris, all thanks to Vardar.
In interviews, Vardar and museum director, William Meade, confirm they
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So to this day, nobody actually knows his identity.
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This is the largest exhibition in the world, over 160 pieces by Banksy,
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and the only place in the world where you can see everything that he's ever done.
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Well, not everything he's ever done at this point, because he keeps on creating more works.
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Most of the pieces in here have either been destroyed because they've been defaced,
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or they've been destroyed because of the buildings, or because they were created in war zones.
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Out of the 30 pieces that were created in 2013, only one still exists in New York.
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And this is an important year also for me, for the USA.
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This is the year of election.
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The world is very, like, how to say, a lot of things happen.
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Because people are running in the world.
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Maybe having the possibility to have a point of view of an artist,
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who make a scan of the world by painting is not stupid.
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Well, I have a question for you,
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all the works of Banksy are very important.
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For me, the most important, the last,
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is about Ukraine.
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He went in Ukraine
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to paint. Imagine how it's
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the courage you need to go there
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knowing that even Putin don't dare
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to go in Ukraine to visit
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his troops. He went there and made
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a painting about the situation of
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and to take a position against Putin
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in this war which is completely ridiculous.
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Here we are in the world
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the recreation of the
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situation of Bethlehem in Palestine.
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But before what's happening actually
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absolutely. But of course
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you can understand his artworks by
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understanding they have been made in
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The girl with the balloon
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was originally done
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on the Waterloo Bridge in London.
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On the Waterloo Bridge in London
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and as a result was then
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frame that was actually sold
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at Sotheby's. Now you know the whole Sotheby's
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story was that he was going to
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sell it for 1.2 million dollars
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or so and the moment it sold,
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it went through a shredder.
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And then the shredder messed up
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so it was even more of a complication
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so about half way through.
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The shredder as a result, that piece
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ended up best selling for 24 million dollars.
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So the wonderful thing about Banksy is that
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there's no laws, there's no
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he doesn't want anybody telling you
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what to do or how to experience the art.
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his phrase is better out than in.
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Better out meaning that
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you're not being told to go into a museum,
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to experience it in a way
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that somebody else is telling you.
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He brings it out to the streets so you can experience it in a whole
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Every time that I look at these pieces,
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I see something different.
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And I think depending on who you are,
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that's the wonderful thing about this exhibition
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is that adults see one thing,
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children see something else.
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I think it's a multi-generational thing.
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So on one hand, you may see a ballerina
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cement or you know,
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on the other hand, other people don't see that.
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In other words, sometimes people see
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this is just a little girl
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letting go of a balloon.
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But then other people see it as
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a loss of innocence, a loss of
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giving away their parts of themselves.
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And so each piece has
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a dramatically different thing, but there's no doubt
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Banksy has a tremendous
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he's tremendously in touch
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and in tune with all of
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the things that are going on
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such as in Palestine and Ukraine.
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He'll create art all in conjunction
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with each one of those
