Last month, nine scathing new murals cropped up around Paris. A mourning veiled figure outside Le Bataclan gig hall. A young girl painting over a swastika. A rat with a bow-tie on its head. An obvious critique of the French government’s crackdown on immigration, fingers were immediately pointed at world-famous street artist Banksy, who later confirmed his responsibility on Instagram.
Known for his large-scale art, for decades, the anonymous Bristol-born artist has pervaded the public eye, whilst still placing poignant and timely graffiti in very, very public places. And now his original gallerist, Steve Lazarides, and Mayfair’s Lazinc gallery co-founder, Wissam Al Mana, have teamed up to showcase some of the artist’s most iconic and earliest works, all in one place. Curated from a number of private collections, the exhibition includes stencilled canvases, sculptures, paintings, and limited-edition prints – many which have never been exhibited in public. We chatted to Banksy’s original gallerist, Steve, about how they met, selling his art out of the boot of his car, and why the international man of mystery became anonymous in the first place…
