Love is in the air (Banksy 2021)

Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls, and bridges throughout the world. His work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

About the Exhibition:

From 20 November 2021 to 02 June 2022

Catania

Place: Palace of Culture

Address: Via Vittorio Emanuele II

Curators: Sabina de Gregori and Giuseppe Stagnitta

Promoters:

• Department of Culture of the Municipality of Catania

The exhibition, curated by Sabina de Gregori and Giuseppe Stagnitta at the Palazzo della Cultura in Catania from 20 November 2021 to 2 June 2022 and promoted by the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Catania, documents the innovative and revolutionary path of two great artists who have changed the way of experiencing art in the last 50 years: Warhol and Banksy.

A confrontation between two artists and two apparently distant personalities: the fabulous world of Andy Warhol, famous and omnipresent, the most photographed artist in the world, against the anonymous Banksy who has never posed for a photo and who risks arrest from Disneyland to Palestine, making his art a worldwide media event. On the one hand, therefore, Warhol and his works have become a consumer product and his name a real brand, and on the other Banksy, a great communication expert who continues to be talked about by transforming street vandalism into an international front-page event, capable of reaching the entire planet, now a successful brand recognized all over the world, and not only in the art world. Banksy, like Warhol, has become a real brand like Coca-Cola or Nike.

Two artists whose most famous works ever created are themselves: "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" said Warhol and Banksy answers: "Everyone in life will have 15 minutes of anonymity". Brilliant figures, capable of creating a powerful cocktail of celebrity, satire and voyeurism and who have been able to transform their art into an extraordinary event.

The works on display will be over 100, from famous private collections around the world and from important art galleries. From Banksy's sensual Kate Moss in Warhol's Marilyn pose in 1962, Banksy's famous Hula Hoop wall made with the stencil technique in Nottingham in 2020 as an invitation to recover the meaning of things. Warhol's famous 1967 self-portrait painting Self Portrait. And then the most significant works such as Warhol's political portraits of Mao and Lenin and Banksy's painting of Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth. Again, the unique portraits of Mick Jagger, Billy Squier and Judy Garland by Warhol.

The great themes common to both artists will also be addressed: music and cinema, which will constitute a unique face-to-face.