THE WORLD'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL STREET AND STENCIL ARTIST

Vernissage: 6:30pm - 8:30pm, 29 April 2008
Exhibition: 30 April - 13 May 2008
Venue: Main Gallery 21-31 Old Bailey Street, Central, Hong Kong

Schoeni Art Gallery is immensely thrilled to present our gallery's first urban art exhibition Banksy - The World's Most Controversial Street and Stencil Artist in association with Fabrik Contemporary Art and the Helium Foundation, UK. Banksy is undoubtedly the world's most famous street and stencil artist of our time and a pre-eminent figure whose' works encompass the culture of the generation we live in.

Often being compared with Andy Warhol and regarded as 'the new Damien Hirst', Banksy is evidently a happening representative of today's cutting-edge art scene. He epitomizes an art that is honest, real and conveniently accessible. Banksy's works can be seen globally from the streets of London to the Segregation Wall in Palestine and he has shaken the art world with his revolutionary guerrilla art of using stenciled spray paint to convey mocking messages of peace, justice and freedom.

At the Red charity auction in February 2008, organized by Bono, Damien Hirst and Sotheby's to help fight Aids in Africa, Banksy's "Keep it Spotless" was sold for 1,870,000USD setting an auction record for the artist. The remarkable piece consists of a joint collaboration between Banksy and Damien Hirst, in which the stencil artist defaced one of Hirst's famous spot paintings.

The Banksy exhibition will be a continuation of the Love Art show, which will take place at the Hong Kong Arts Centre from 23-28 April, highlighting Banksy's rare and previously unseen in Hong Kong originals. The showing at Schoeni Art Gallery will then be enhanced by additional unique examples of his work, such as his famous policemen with iconic smiley faces of the acid house music, rats with drills, monkeys carrying written messages and weapons of mass destruction. In this ground breaking event, Schoeni Art Gallery wishes to nurture a sensational and effervescent opportunity to experience an unorthodox art form that is created under time and space.

"You can imagine that much of the past four years that I have been running the gallery years were spent trying to pace the changes in my life with the rhythm of my father's gallery. Now that I am on the same beat, I want to begin making my own innovations, such as bringing the urban art scene overseas to Asia. As a student in London I came across Banksy's works on the streets - it has always been my dream to show his works in Hong Kong and to share his wit and his art of communicating controversial and confrontational subjects about the world we live in today through simplistic means."

- Nicole Schoeni

All artworks exhibited at the Banksy exhibition are secondary market originals and prints.

Click on image for an enlarged view or click here for more images.

Jack and Jill (police kids) Edition of 350, Screen print, signed 19 3/4 x 27 1/2 inches, 50 x 70 cm 2002	Rat with Saw Spray paint and paint on Chipboard 17 x 36 inches, 43 x 91.5 cm 2002
Kate (Portfolio) Screen print Matching numbers in an edition of 20, signed 27.5 x 27.5 inches, 70 x 70 cm 2005

Laugh Now 1 Mixed media and spray paint on door 7 x 3 feet, 213.5 x 91.5 cm 2002	Laugh Now 2 Mixed media and spray paint on door 7 x 3 feet, 213.5 x 91.5 cm 2002	Riot Copper Mixed media and spray paint on door 7.5 x 3 feet, 225 x 91.5 cm 2002

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