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Three rare color variations of Banksy\u2019s iconic \u2018Girl with Balloon\u2019 are part of \u2018The Art of Banksy\u2019 running Aug. 1-30 inside Morsani Hall at David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida. Credit: Kyle Flubacker<\/p>\n
For an artist who built a career on anonymity and anti-establishment graffiti, there is a certain beautiful irony to the reality of a massive, heavily secured blockbuster exhibition. Welcome to\u00a0\u201cThe Art of Banksy<\/a>,\u201d a touring juggernaut making its highly anticipated Tampa debut at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. But if you are expecting a quiet, high-brow evening of staring blankly at a canvas while pretending to understand modern art, you are in the wrong place.<\/p>\n A global first on the main stage<\/p>\n The exhibition has historically adapted to some truly chaotic venues, including a 1920s ammunition factory in Toronto, a concrete shell of a supermarket in Tel Aviv, and an old London department store where King Charles was literally the landlord. However, the Tampa layout is pulling off a global first: the entire exhibition is being housed directly on the Straz Center\u2019s main stage.<\/p>\n For Michel Boersma, the exhibition\u2019s executive producer and curator, this theatrical collision is a full-circle moment for his 30-year background as a theater producer. It also completely upends the traditional audience experience. Visitors won\u2019t be strolling through a grand lobby to sit in velvet seats; instead, they will enter and exit the Straz through the backstage loading bay.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir experience starts in a completely different way\u2026 they enter through backstage and then they also leave through backstage through the loading bay\u2014of course, exit through the gift shop\u2014and then they go out again,\u201d Boersma notes. \u201cFor the visitors in Tampa it\u2019s also a whole new way of seeing their venue\u201d.<\/p>\n Inside, the vibe is anti-museum. It features black walls, loud music, and hyper-focused theatrical lighting that leaves the rest of the room in total darkness to make the pieces pop. Boersma proudly describes it as a \u201crock and roll exhibition\u201d.<\/p>\n The \u2018Gateway Drug\u2019 of the art world<\/p>\n With 160 authenticated pieces, this is the world\u2019s largest touring exhibition of genuine Banksy art. Boersma is quick to draw a hard line between this show and the sea of unauthorized, replica-filled knockoffs that frequently steal their marketing. \u201cThere\u2019s no replicas, there\u2019s no selfie walls and that kind of stuff within the exhibition,\u201d he explains, noting that the real art is incredibly expensive to transport, secure, and insure.<\/p>\n But why does an anonymous street artist from Bristol command this kind of global blockbuster footprint? Because Banksy is the ultimate populist creator, stripping away the gatekeeping of fine art galleries.<\/p>\n \u201cI always jokingly say\u2026 it\u2019s like a gateway drug into the arts,\u201d Boersma says. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to stand in front of a Banksy for 10 minutes, look really wise and not having a clue what it means\u2026 Banksy, you can have your own interpretation. There\u2019s always a bit of humor in there, and it has a message\u201d.<\/p>\n Girlfriend drama, Brad Pitt, and grinders<\/p>\n While the public knows the \u201cstreet art Robin Hood\u201d caricature, the exhibition aims to add nuance by pulling back the curtain on the artist\u2019s personal life and career. It turns out that nuance involves a healthy dose of reality-TV-level drama.<\/p>\n Take, for example, the iconic\u00a0\u201cFlower Thrower,\u201d which is making its U.S. debut in Tampa. The exhibition reveals that the image wasn\u2019t a spontaneous street capture; it was actually a staged photograph from an anarchist newspaper used as an anti-Shell oil protest. Furthermore, the specific piece on display was originally a Valentine\u2019s Day gift from Banksy to an associate named Leoni Lo.<\/p>\n However, that romantic gesture comes with an incredible twist of absolute chaos:<\/p>\n The Double-Gift:\u00a0At the London opening, Boersma hosted three of Banksy\u2019s ex-girlfriends. They discovered that Banksy had given a\u00a0blue\u00a0version of the exact same\u00a0\u201cFlower Thrower\u201d\u00a0print to\u00a0another\u00a0woman on the exact same Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n The Review:\u00a0As one of the exes dryly told Boersma: \u201cBanksy is an amazing artist, not a very good boyfriend\u201d.<\/p>\n The Grudge:\u00a0Years later, when Leoni gave the piece back to Banksy to get a certificate of authentication, he kept it for nine months, took a mechanical grinder to the top right corner, ground off his original romantic message, and wrote a new one underneath it. Visitors in Tampa can actually inspect the grinder scratches via a high-resolution scan at the exhibit.<\/p>\n The exhibition also features another major U.S. premiere: a multi-layered\u00a0\u201cMona Lisa\u201d\u00a0piece created on an air conditioning filter, which was previously owned by Brad Pitt before being sold to one of the exhibition\u2019s private collectors.<\/p>\n How to commit elite vandalism (the corporate way)<\/p>\n Ultimately, the exhibition answers the burning question that haunts every casual fan: How does the most famous artist in the world illegally paint public walls across the globe without getting arrested?<\/p>\n As it turns out, it isn\u2019t a complex, high-tech operation involving night-vision goggles or\u00a0\u201cMission: Impossible\u00a0ropes.\u201d The secret to elite criminal anonymity is hilariously mundane.<\/p>\n \u201cIt all comes down to a little builder\u2019s van and a highfizz jacket,\u201d Boersma reveals. \u201cBecause you don\u2019t ask questions of a construction worker, right? If a construction worker goes into your street and does something on a house, you\u2019re not going to ask questions. And that\u2019s how the whole system of Banksy works\u201d.<\/p>\n For a city like Tampa,\u00a0\u201cThe Art of Banksy\u201d\u00a0offers a rare, authorized, and deeply funny deep-dive into an artist who managed to conquer the fine art world using nothing but cardboard, spray paint, and a brilliantly applied neon safety vest.<\/p>\n Tickets to see \u201cThe Art of Banksy\u201d running Aug. 1-30 inside Morsani Hall at David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida are still available for $29.99-$99.99.<\/a><\/p>\n This post first appeared at TB Arts Passport<\/a>, which is part of the Tampa Bay Journalism Project <\/a>\u00a0(TBJP), a nascent Creative Loafing Tampa Bay effort supported by grants and a coalition of donors who make specific contributions via the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation<\/a>. If you are a non-paywalled Bay area publication interested in TBJP, please email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. Support TB Arts Passport by subscribing to its free newsletter or becoming a paying Arts Passport Member<\/a>.<\/p>\n