Liverpool’s New Banksy Vandalised By Feuding Rival

Banksy

Banksy image of a biplane leaving a trail of smoke in Liverpool has been vandalised by long-term and bitter rival King Robbo

The new Bansky work of a biplane leaving a trail of smoke across the wall of a car park in Liverpool city centre has been vandalised by a rival graffiti artist King Robbo. With a can of red spray paint, Robbo added the words ‘BANKSY 4 ROBBO’ across the image of the heart. This is the latest move in a long-running graffiti war between the two street artists, Robbo most famously adapting a Banksy piece on Camden Canal. But Banksy in fact started it, vandalising a 25-year-old graf by Robbo – a long-established and well-respected graffiti artist – that no one else had touched for respect of its importance as a piece of graffiti history.

The biplane is Liverpool’s second Banksy after the artist painted one of his signature giant rats on the wall of a derelict pub in Berry Street in 2004. This is the second Banksy to appear in the last month with another reported in West London on the 2 December (See Link), and a major sculpture depicting a Monopoly board popping up at the Occupy London protest at St Paul’s cathedral in November.

Banksy’s work typically includes satirical social and political commentary, and ranges from murals to sculpture and installation, often playing with the contextual aspects of the work. The artist’s first solo show was held in 2002 at Los Angeles’ 33 1/3 Gallery, and in 2003 he was commissioned to design to cover of Blur’s ThinkTank. Today, Banksy’s work appears internationally; most notably, he painted nine sardonic images on the Palestinian side of the West Bank barrier. In Summer 2009, Banksy took over the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery with an exhibition attracting over 300,000 visitors and hour-long queues all the way down the road. Most recently the artist has experimented with film, achieving an Oscar nomination for his documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop.

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