Artist Analysis: Banksy

Banksy

Artist Analysis: Banksy

Banksy in an anonymous British graffiti artist and political activist. Due to his hidden identity his birth and real name are unknown but it is to be believed that he would have to have been born in Bristol, England, around 1974.

He began his artistic career around 1990 in a graffiti gang called the DryBreadZ Crew, this work was mostly freehand but he occasionally used stencils, this then developed into using exclusively stencils. This is when his black and white characters style developed.

Although he used other materials such as paint, Banksy mostly uses spray paint through home made stencils.

All of Banksy's work has political meanings behind it as he is a political activist, His work often engages political themes like war, capitalism, hypocrisy and greed.

The piece shown here shows a man with a paint bucket in his hands, and the words follow your dreams next to him, it also has the word cancelled over the top of the follow your dreams.

The colors used are extremely simply, but this is Banksy's style, most of the people he illustrates are in black and white.

The way Banksy illustrated is to try and make his paintings look although they are real at a glance, most of the people depicted are life size, giving a surreal truth feel.

I think Banksy is trying to get the message of oppression across saying that you cannot follow your dreams and the government don't allow it. but is the man in the painting the one painting the "follow your dreams" or the "cancelled"?

I believe that this inspires me with my work as it is rejecting the saying, saying you cannot follow your dreams, but in the same way saying the opposite in an ironic way.

Artist Analysis: Sam Bevington

Don't Knock It Till You've Tried It - Sam Bevington

Artist Analysis: Sam Bevington

Born in 1987, Sam graduated from UWE in Bristol in First Class Honours in 2009. His work is heavily influenced by urban surroundings and environment and graphic illustrations of the 1930s-1940s.

Most of Bevingtons work is made using graphic design programmes featuring typography and the 1930s looking illustrations, his illustrations also can sometimes be controversial and touch upon taboo subjects. 

As his artistic career has only just started, Bevington has already designed posters and other advertisements for company's like 3 Mobile and The NHS.

This piece here is called Don't Knock it Till You've Tried it. The piece looks like a poster for something but is drawn on top of book pages as it is a poster it makes you read it from top to bottom, the look at the image. The piece is all worn and faded but features a character that looks like a medicinal pill but done in a 1930s style, so maybe the piece is made to look worn to make it seem like it id from that time. The poster also has the words Don't Knock It Till You've Tried it written on it, this saying implies that this pill may be for recreational use and shows the controversy that Bevington sometimes features. In the piece there are colourful and childlike drawing done in what looks like crayons. The colours used in the piece are mostly primary colour (Blue, red and yellow) this again may suggest childlike qualities.

I believe that this piece is created to show how old fashioned saying, with good intent can be used for more controversial issues and more sinister situations, for example the drug use that is suggested in the piece.

This piece influences me as I like the way he has made a child friendly looking poster into something that children should not be taught. I also appreciate the way that he has turned the traditional saying of "don't knock it till you've tried it." into almost an advert for people to try drugs.