1 - INTRO
The exhibition BANKSY and the Street Art is curated by Daniel Buso. It is organized by ARTIKA in collaboration with Deodato Arte and the Città di Pisa. It brings to Pisa, for the very first time, an extensive selection of works by the acclaimed British artist Banksy. Alongside him, the show features some of the most influential figures in this artistic movement: from Keith Haring and Blek le Rat—considered the father of stencil art—to Shepard Fairey (known as Obey) and Invader. The exhibition also includes contemporary artists such as TvBoy, Mr. Savethewall, and Mr Brainwash, who rose to fame partly thanks to the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.
2 - STREET ART
The very name “Street Art” evokes powerful and often contradictory ideas. On one hand, it represents a break from official, institutional art; on the other, these works—once born in opposition to cultural institutions—are now welcomed and celebrated by that very system. Artists hiding behind pseudonyms, sometimes sought after by both collectors and the authorities, recall historic figures like Caravaggio: beloved, yet always on the run.
3 - KEITH HARING
Keith Haring, after receiving a traditional artistic education, began around 1980 to spread his distinctive artistic style on the walls of subway stations, often being fined and, in some cases, temporarily detained by the authorities. His iconic stylized figures are deliberately inspired by the world of comics—primitive, yet undeniably “pop,” easily appreciated by a wide audience.
4 - BANKSY
Banksy is the only artist who is consistently at the center of public debate. He is the most mysterious and controversial artist of our time, constantly capable of generating headline news. Writing about his biography is a true challenge, as his identity remains undisclosed. Born in Bristol, he began creating highly realistic stencils in the 1990s, almost always carrying a political, anti-capitalist, and anti-authoritarian message.
5 - RATS
The artist who most inspired Banksy at the beginning of his career is undoubtedly the French street artist Blek le Rat. In the words of the Bristol artist: “Every time I paint something slightly original, I discover that Blek le Rat already did it—just twenty years earlier.”
6 - QUEEN VIC
The British royal family has always been a prime target for punk artists, and Banksy is no exception. On the contrary, he enthusiastically inherits that tradition from the 1980s, ridiculing the icons of power in his own way. One of his most famous works in this vein is Queen Vic, a provocation so effective that pop star Christina Aguilera purchased it for over twenty thousand pounds.
7 - FLOWER THROWER
Flower Thrower, also known as Love is in the Air, is one of Banksy’s most iconic works. The image depicts a masked protester in the act of throwing a bouquet of flowers instead of a Molotov cocktail. The subject has often been interpreted as a symbol of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This theme has long been close to the Bristol artist, who has sought over time to draw Western attention to the difficult conditions faced by Palestinians.
8 - INVADER
Invader is one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in contemporary Street Art. Active since the late 1990s, he has conquered the streets of the world with thousands of small mosaics inspired by the aesthetics of arcade video games from the previous decade. His name pays homage to the 1978 game Space Invaders, from which he drew not only his pseudonym but also his stylistic signature: pixelated aliens made of tiny colored tiles, scattered across city walls like cultural viruses.
9 - PULP FICTION
In 2003, Banksy created Pulp Fiction in London, a work paying homage to Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film, sharing its ironic and irreverent spirit. Here, the film’s typical violence is ridiculed: John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson hold bananas instead of guns, the only colored elements in an otherwise black-and-white composition. The intention is clear and immediate; rather than a critique, the work is a playful, parodic celebration of Hollywood cinema.
10 – CND SOLDIERS
CND Soldiers depicts two soldiers kneeling on the ground. One holds a rifle, surveying the surroundings attentively, ready to act. The other, surprisingly, holds a paintbrush and is painting a large red peace symbol on a wall. This emblem—now an international icon of pacifism—was created in 1957 as the symbol of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom.
11 - NAPALM
Napalm is among Banksy’s most powerful and emotionally charged works. With it, the artist reaffirmed his political engagement and commitment to exposing the links between war, economic power, and the military-industrial complex. The image is a direct critique of aggressive capitalism, colonial occupation, and the devastating consequences these phenomena have on the most vulnerable.
12 - FLAG
Flag depicts a group of children and youths triumphantly standing atop a burning car, raising the American flag. The figures are portrayed as disadvantaged urban youth. The dramatic presence of a large silver moon enhances the scene’s tension.
13 - GOLF SALE
Golf Sale is a reinterpretation of a famous image: the 1989 photograph by Jeff Widener during the bloody suppression of the Democracy Movement in China. In the original, a lone man stands in front of a line of tanks, desperately attempting to stop their advance—a gesture of courage that became a universal symbol of nonviolent resistance.
14 - TVBOY
The exhibition also features works by Salvatore Benintende, known as TvBoy, a Palermo-born artist and leading figure in the Neo Pop movement. TvBoy is not just a pseudonym but an alter ego often depicted as a symbol of distinction from the mass culture of younger generations—a culture shaped, as the name suggests, by television.
15 - OBEY
The foremost contemporary practitioner of poster-based art is Shepard Fairey, better known as Obey. He uses the most affordable medium in Street Art to broadcast messages often significant from a political and social standpoint. The public began recognizing him as Obey in 1989, when he plastered cities with stickers and posters featuring the face of wrestler André the Giant accompanied by the imperative “Obey.” This marked the beginning of a cultural empire.
16 - NO BALL GAMES
No ball games first appeared as part of the famous Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles in 2006. Another version was installed on a wall in north London in 2009.
17 - TOXIC MARY
A Madonna nursing a child—an ancient, intimate gesture full of tenderness. But here, instead of milk, there is a small bottle marked with a hazard symbol: a black skull. The label warns that the contents are toxic.
18 - NOLA
In 2008, during a stay in New Orleans, Banksy created a work with strong emotional impact. The mural emerged in the context of the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina and serves as an explicit critique of the local authorities’ inefficiency in handling the emergency.
19 - TAKI183
In this piece, Mr Savethewall pays tribute to one of New York’s very first graffiti artists. Let’s discover his story together. In the early 1970s, a simple, seemingly anonymous tag began to appear repeatedly on the streets of New York’s Upper West Side: TAKI183. It was the name of a young man of Greek origin, Demetrios, who combined his nickname with the number of the street where he lived: 183rd. It was a sparse message, obsessively repeated on walls, bus stops and underground carriages. But it was precisely this obsessive repetition that transformed it into a familiar, almost mythological presence for those who travelled through the city every day.
20 - BANKSQUIAT
Using one of his trademark wordplays, Banksy combines his own street name with that of one of the sacred icons of graffiti (and contemporary art in general): Jean-Michel Basquiat.
21 - CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON
Choose Your Weapon is a portrait of British youth deprived of ideals and prospects, and of gang culture, in which aggressive dogs are used to assert dominance in neighbourhoods. There are some contradictory elements at play here: on the one hand, the menacing appearance of the hooded youth contrasts with his relaxed posture; on the other, his ferocious dog resembles a stylised cartoon character. The unidentifiable figure bears a striking resemblance to how Banksy is often depicted. The minimalist dog is rendered in a flat, hieroglyphic style with a thick black outline and a solid white centre. These figures first appeared on the wall of a pub in Bermondsey, south London, in 2010. Banksy’s barking dog clearly pays homage to Keith Haring’s famous icon from the 1980s. One of the New York street artist’s most universally recognised symbols is precisely the dog with its mouth open, rendered in countless colour variations. Banksy appropriates this symbol to spread his message. The…
22 - MR BRAINWASH
Mr. Savethewall is an artist from Como who enjoys reinterpreting themes and customs of contemporary society in playful or provocative, ironic, and irreverent ways. His work represents a “deconstruction and reconstruction of shared linguistic codes,” executed through Street Art techniques, particularly stenciling on unconventional surfaces such as cardboard, packing paper, wood, metal, and recycled materials.
23 - TROLLEYS
Trolleys is a well-known Banksy work that fully showcases his ability to merge Street Art, graffiti, and sharp social satire. The image depicts three prehistoric men in a sparse environment, strongly reminiscent of hunting scenes drawn on cave walls by early humans.