Banksy is an anonymous graffiti Artist (whose work is worth millions). He’s a rebel genius and anything he touches turns to gold. Simply put, Banksy is an invisible celebrity who creates socially engaged protest art for us. His work is sarcastic and anti-establishment. It’s witty and culturally significant. It speaks to the ordinary and draws in the views of thousands. Some consider Banksy a criminal, while some consider him a legend.Just what exactly is he doing, why is he doing it, and what does the effect of his commercial success mean when it goes against the message he is trying to send? Banksy’s protest art has been a major success – one that has fallen into the laps of exactly those people and ideas that the art protests.

A quick google search will have over thirty million results on him. His artwork is known in various places in the world. He’s not famous in his niche or a small corner, he is famous across the globe. Still, many wonder what kind of man Banksy is, what he is about, and why he turns so many heads in the first place.

Banksy was inspired by Graffiti artist now turned musician Robert Del Naja, and rat fan Blek Le Rat (Neu 1).  Both used stencil graffiti art which Banksy also preferred as it was easily reproducible in the studio before it was brought out to the street. Banksy enjoyed Blek Le Rat’s use of rats as a symbol of the vilified and the broken. However, Banksy is not a typical rebel or just a vandal without a cause. His work challenges us and gets us out of our comfort zones and makes us really think about the society we are living in and what it means to us living the human experience. He asks, “Are we doing it right, just what is it that we are doing, and why is the morality so questionable?”

Banksy is a culturally significant, rather exceptionally profound artist. He has been listed in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. He is listed there among Obama, Steve Jobs, and Lady Gaga, only he has a paper bag over his head (he is after all, anonymous). “He has a gift: an ability to make almost anyone very uncomfortable. He doesn’t ignore boundaries; he crosses them to prove their irrelevance”. So, while he was once just rebel street artist, Banksy is now an artist whose work transcends time.

He questions socio political injustice and upsets normative power structures by taking to the street and demanding the attention of onlookers (Harzman 2).  This contrasts with, say, the commercial effect of times square – where the flashing lights demand the attention of onlookers, but tell you instead to consume. As Banksy provides visual rhetoric, he can open eyes and provide some an outlet for the liberation of the distressed. With satire being his primary method, it is a particularly effective political tool as he creates a nontraditional method of combating socio political injustices.