The true identity of the notoriously elusive street artist Banksy has finally been revealed.
Key Points
Though a Reuters report proved that Banksy is the Bristol, England, native Robin Gunningham "beyond dispute," several other suspects still percolate in curious minds.
The list includes Massive Attack frontman Robert Del Naja, Gorillaz co-founder Jamie Hewlett, and British TV host Neil Buchanan.
If you've wondered for years, even decades who's behind some of the most famous street art of the past century, from "Girl with Balloon" to "Love is in the Air" — that is,who Banksy is— wonder no more.
A team of reporters were able to prove the identity infamous tagger and art icon "beyond dispute" in acomprehensiveReutersreporton March 13. Banksy is none other than Robin Gunningham, a native of the English cultural hub of Bristol who has been one of the leading suspects in the international manhunt for the artist's true ID since the late 2000s.
But over the years, the artist's avid fans and impartial internet sleuths alike concocted several compelling cases for who Banksymighthave been, before we got official confirmation. What follows are the other prime candidates, from a pioneering trip-hop musician, to a local British councillor forced out of his job due to rampant speculation, to a roving gang of street artists whose mysterious female leader was briefly glimpsed in Banksy's Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary,Exit Through the Gift Shop.
Robert Del Naja
The evidence connecting Del Naja, a founding member of the acclaimed English trip-hop group Massive Attack, to Banksy is so substantial that it throws evenReuters' smoking gun pointed at Gunningham into question.
For one, Del Naja is an accomplished graffiti artist. Years before Massive Attack released its seminal debut album, 1991'sBlue Lines, Del Naja's work under the tagger name 3D led to his inclusion in the BBC documentaryBombin'. Del Naja's segment in the doc prominently showcased his stencil-heavy style — the same style the Banksy would popularize over the course of his rise fame in the 1990s.
In 2016, investigative journalist Craig Williamsmapped outtimes and places around the world where Banksy works just happened to pop up within days of Massive Attack concerts. Whenasked about the connectionthat same year, however, Del Naja demurred, "Rumors of my secret identity are greatly exaggerated." He did confirm that Banksy is "a mate" who has "been to some of the gigs." But anything beyond that is "purely a matter of logistics and coincidence."
Jamie Hewlett
Another crossover lead from the world of music was Jamie Hewlett, co-creator of theTank Girlcomics and co-founder of the band Gorillaz with Blur's Damon Albarn. A "forensic expert" whospoke to Metro.co.ukin 2018 found links between Hewlett and virtually every company associated with Banksy, who created a business infrastructure in order to sell his work and engage with press in the late 1990s.
Beyond the business connections, the artists appear to have shared inspiration, if not actual designs in the past. The music video for Gorillaz 2001 song "Tomorrow Comes Today" prominently features one of his more recognizable, monkey-forward works, "Laugh Now but One Day We'll Be in Charge."
A Banksy original also graces the cover of Blur's 2003 albumThink Tank.
Thierry Guetta a.k.a. Mr. Brainwash
While Del Naja has remained at the front of the speculation pack for years, Banksy himself nudged fellow artist Thierry Guetta forward when he chose him as the subject for his 2010 documentaryExit Through the Gift Shop.
The Oscar-nominated documentary began as footage that Guetta, who makes art under the name Mr. Brainwash, sought to capture of other street artists at work. But when the project languished, Banksy emerged from the shadows, took a seat in the director's chair, and turned the camera on Guetta.
Little else connected the artists, other than several of Guetta's better-known works, including "Pop Wall," feature interpolations of Banksy works.
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Neil Buchanan
One of the stranger lead suspects was Neil Buchanan, who isn't even mentioned in theReutersinvestigation, but courted enough speculation in 2020 forthe BBCto issue a report on the matter.
The English multi-hyphenate has worked as a visual artist, photographer, musician, and host of the popular children's TV programArt Attack(sound like a band you know?). Buchanan would often create artwork while hosting the show, which some viewers believed had aesthetic parallels to Banksy's.
But the real connection that fomented rumors lied in the suggestion that new Banksy street works tended to pop up in the 2000s in spots where Buchanan's metal band Marseille used to play. Regardless, Buchanan issued an unambiguous denial of the suggestion on his website in 2020 (per BBC), which read, "Neil Buchanan ISN'T Banksy."
Other suspects
The list of almost Banksys, maybe-could-have-been Banksys, and "I guess? If you squint your eyes?"-might-be Banksys is nearly endless. TheReutersinvestigation delves into several memorable theories, including Canadian artist Chris Healey's contention in the 2014 HBO documentaryBanksy Does New Yorkthat the tagger was actually a team of artists led by a mysterious blonde woman glimpsed inExit Through the Gift Shop.
Then there's the sad case of Billy Gannon, who resigned as a councillor for his small town in Wales' Pembrokeshire county over mounting allegations that he was also an internationally famous graffiti star.
"The problem I have is that when I say to people, 'I am not Banksy,' I can see this look in their eyes, and they say, 'That's what Banksy would say,'" hetoldThe Guardianin 2022.
Finally, there was a brief moment in 2014 when British policeappeared to have arrested Banksyin the act of art-making. The 35-year-old Liverpool man named Paul Horner was momentarily connected to Banksy — baffling, as it would have placed him around 10 years old when he made his first work — and otherwise quickly denied by Banksy's publicist at the time, Jo Brooks.
Who is Banksy, really?
It was an arrest that ultimately led to the decisive ID in the Banksy case.Reutersjournalists Simon Gardner, James Pearson, and Blake Morrison looked into an arrest involving Banksy touted by Steve Lazarides, the artist's former manager, over the defacement of a Marc Jacobs billboard in New York City in 2000.
Police documents and a court file ultimately yielded repeated references to Gunningham, and most decisively, his signature at the bottom of a hand-written confession to the alleged crime.
Gunningham began making work under the playful pseudonym Robin Banks in the early 1990s, shortening it over time to Banksy.The Daily Mailfirst pointed the finger at Gunningham as possibly being Banksy in 2008, the same year he changed his name to David Jones - one of the most common, and therefore least searchable, names in the United Kingdom.
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