For over a decade, there have been many exhibitions showcasing Banksy’s works. Some successful ones have attracted millions of visitors despite the artist repeatedly warning that global exhibitions in his name are mostly unofficial and non-consensual.
If you are one of his fans, you surely can’t miss out on the real deal. The elusive Bristol-based artist announced the exciting news about his first official exhibition last Thursday on Instagram, catching everyone by surprise with the first release of online tickets quickly selling out.
The show runs at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Glasgow, Scotland, from 18 June to 28 August 2023. Titled Cut & Run: 25 Years Card Labour, it features many of his best-known pieces, such as Kissing Coppers and Mobile Lovers, while focusing on the stencils he uses to create his works.
The good news for those interested is that extra tickets are now available, and walk-up visitors are also welcome from 9 am daily at GoMA.
Banksy's first official solo show quickly sold out online
Banksy announced his first official solo show after 14 years on his Instagram
Kissing Coppers is a Banksy stencil that pictures two British policemen kissing. It was originally unveiled in Brighton in 2004
Banksy said in a short statement, “I’ve kept these stencils hidden away for years, mindful they could be used as evidence in a charge of criminal damage. But that moment seems to have passed, so now I’m exhibiting them in a gallery as works of art. I’m not sure which is the greater crime.”
The artist said he picked Glasgow because this is where his favourite work of art in the UK is located in. Standing in front of GoMA is an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, which is famous for having a traffic cone on its head.
The authorities have tried to remove it for many years, but only to have it replaced with new ones by Glaswegians. The city’s light-hearted attitude to authority shares similarities with what we see in many of Banksy's works.
Banksy's first official solo show opens at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Glasgow
An equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington
Banksy's first official solo show opens at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Glasgow
A replica of the artist's studio on display in the show
The first showroom of the exhibition is the artist’s tribute to this artwork, where viewers are greeted by a new version of Banksy’s stencil The Street Is In Plays – two children reaching up trying to grasp a traffic cone (It’s a spray can in the original work).
Viewers will see a replica of the artist’s studio with a rack of spray cans and his workstation with some of his works hanging on the wall. Other exhibited works include a Union Flag stab vest that Banksy made for the pop star Stormzy, the 2017 piece Basquiat Being Stop and Searched, and his personal items including the 'artist’s actual toilet’.
Visitors also get to find out the secret behind his infamously self-destructed painting Balloon Girl with a model showing how Banksy embedded a shredder into the frame. The painting was sold at an auction at Sotheby’s London in 2018 for £1.1 million and was then renamed Love is in the Bin by Banksy’s authentication body, Pest Control.
Basquiat Being Stop and Searched
The artist embedded a shredder into the frame of Balloon Girl
Banksy: Cut and Run
Date: 18 June to 28 August 2023
Opening hours:
- Sunday to Thursday | 9am – 11pm
- Friday and Saturday | 9am – 5am (next morning)
Venue: Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Tickets:
- £15 | Adult
- £5 | Child
- £10 | Student/OAP/disabled/low waged
Click here to check out the official website