[Update, July 7] This exhibition was originally scheduled for August 2020. However, it has now been postponed to the summer of 2021 due to setbacks caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus.
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[October 24, 2019] This A tiny graffiti stencil of a rat discovered at a train station caused overwhelming commotion in Tokyo at the beginning of 2019 as officials tried to determine whether the unsolicited artwork was the mark of anonymous street artist and global megastar Banksy, or ‘just another case of vandalism’. Rather than being scrubbed off, the piece of metal with the graffiti was carefully extracted and exhibited for a short time at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building where hundreds gathered to peer at the artwork up-close. Banksy was contacted through Instagram but the artist never responded to validate the work.
While the graffiti rat has since been put into storage in a warehouse, it looks like the city will see more Banksy buzz come 2020, when an exhibition of the artist’s more notable works comes to Tokyo. Hold your horses – this exhibition isn’t one that has been organised by the artist. The website for this exhibition in Japan, whose domain is tritely called ‘ilovebanksy’, states that the stencil works that will be exhibited are from private collectors.
The artist’s most recent official exhibition was in Croydon, London, which took the form of a shop window exhibiting homeware goods like decorative pillows with ‘Life’s too short' and 'To take advice from a cushion’ crocheted on them. You can currently enter a lottery to buy the products displayed in the 'Gross Domestic Product' showroom on a website that the artist shared on their instagram page. The website warns that all products are made in a 'workplace culture of daytime drinking' and will likely 'prove to be a "disappointing retail experience"'. So if you don’t want to fork out £700 (approx. ¥98,192) for a brick with bits of handbag stuck to it, you may be better off getting your hands on these printed crackers in Ginza instead.
The Banksy Exhibition (name tentative) is set to be held at Terada Warehouse in Shinagawa from August 29 2020 to December 6 2020. More details will be announced on the website in the spring of 2020.
Love street art? Here are some of the most photogenic graffiti in Tokyo.