Banksy protégé Mr. Brainwash invites art lovers — and especially collectors — to his show in the Meatpacking District (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
415 West 13th St. at Washington St.
Through April 30
Monday – Thursday 12 noon – 9:00 pm, Friday – Saturday 12 noon – 12 midnight, Sunday 12 noon – 7:00 pm
www.mrbrainwash.com
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SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON SEEING THE NEW BANKSY MOVIE, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, WHICH OPENS APRIL 16
In EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, the British street artist known as Banksy challenges amateur French videographer Thierry Guetta to become an artist instead of just taping others putting up their pieces. As depicted in the brilliant documentary, Thierry turns himself into Mr. Brainwash, staging a huge show in Los Angeles called “Life Is Beautiful.” In February he opened his first East Coast exhibit, “Icons,” covering some fifteen thousand square feet in a vast space in the Meatpacking District. Whereas Banksy has great skill, a vast imagination, and a unique sense of humor, Mr. Brainwash has, well, Banksy. There is not one shred of an original idea in the two-floor “Icons”; Mr. Brainwash blatantly borrows and steals from such giants as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Claes Oldenburg, and, of course, Andy Warhol (and Banksy as well), some of whom show up in places of honor on silk-screened canvases. At least his art is environmentally friendly, recycling used tires, paint cans, and vinyl records (even if he did break the black discs himself). Like Warhol, Mr. Brainwash has his own factory of workers repurpose pop culture images, from Michael Jackson and Madonna to John Lennon and Charlie Chaplin, from enormous Campbell’s Soup cans to a giant Starbucks cup, from the Statue of Liberty and Albert Einstein to Bruce Springsteen and Warhol himself. With prices ranging from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands, Guetta is making out quite well for himself. There are all sorts of debates over whether any of this is really art, whether Guetta is in fact Banksy, and whether it’s just one big practical joke by one of the world’s great practical jokers. We guess that the unanswered questions, the whole mystery surrounding Banksy, “Icons,” and Mr. Brainwash, are what makes it all so much fun, regardless of what it is or if it means anything. We’d like to think that it’s all a stunt perpetrated beautifully by Banksy, pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, including Mr. Brainwash’s, commenting yet again on the absurd state of the art market.