Bansky
Born 28 July 1973
Bristol UK
SWEEP IT UNDER SWEEPER
2007
Banksy's name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. In a 2003 interview with Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian, Banksy is described as "white, 28, scruffy casual—jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of The Streets." Banksy began as an artist at the age of 14, was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime. According to Hattenstone , "anonymity is vital to him because graffiti is illegal". Banksy reportedly lived in Easton, Bristol during the late 1990s, before moving to London around 2000.
Banksy is commonly believed to be Robin Gunningham, as first identified by The Mail on Sunday in 2008,born on 28 July 1973 in Yate, 12 miles (19 km) from Bristol . Several of Gunningham's associates and former schoolmates at Bristol Cathedral School have corroborated this, and in 2016, a study by researchers at the Queen Mary University of London using geographic profiling found that the incidence of Banksy's works correlated with the known movements of Gunningham . According to The Sunday Times, Gunningham began employing the name Robin Banks, which eventually became Banksy. Two cassette sleeves featuring his art work from 1993, for the Bristol band Mother Samosa, exist with his signature .
In June 2017, DJ Goldie referred to Banksy as "Rob".
Other speculations on Banksy's identity include the following:
Robert Del Naja (a.k.a. 3D), a member of the trip hop band Massive Attack, had been a graffiti artist during the 1980s prior to forming the band, and was previously identified as a personal friend of Banksy.
In 2020, users on Twitter began to speculate that former Art Attack presenter Neil Buchanan was Banksy. This was denied by Buchanan's publicist.
In 2022, Billy Gannon, a local councillor in Pembroke Dock was rumoured to be Banksy. He subsequently resigned because the speculation was affecting his ability to carry out the duties of a councillor. "I'm being asked to prove who I am not, and the person that I am not may not exist," he said. "I mean, how am I supposed to prove that I'm not somebody who doesn't exist? Just how do you do that?"
In October 2014, an internet hoax circulated that Banksy had been arrested and his identity revealed.
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