Mr. Brainwash - From Camera to Street Art

"If you let it exist, it becomes art. People see it, and live it."
Mr Brainwash says in front of a 3 meter Mickey Mouse carrying a bucket of pink paint. Art is to make it exist: the writing behind the Disney icon still looks fresh. Thierry Guetta's hands, aka Mr Brainwash are all sprayed with pink and blue. His 15000 square meters of gallery in the heart of Meat Packing district (Mr Brainwash Icons Remix Exhibit) are a carousel of colours and celebrities.

A huge Picasso hangs over the entrance of the industrial space. No reference to the name of the gallery, just a brush stroke in block capitals: Mr Brainwash Presents Icons. There are Woody Allen, the Kiss, Mick Jagger, Salvador Dalì, Kate Moss...

A pop symposium which reminds of Andy Warhol, where among rock stars and supermodels, actors and artists, Mr Brainwash pays tribute to the undisputed queen of his Icons: Madonna.

"When her manager asked me to create the cover for her latest album, I started working madly. Madonna is a legend, I interrupted everything I was doing just to do this." confesses Brainwash.

And Mr Brainwash did it.
The portraits of the pop star were valued $ 500.000 and since the day of the opening, May 9, a party with more than 2000 people, in the gallery everything went sold out. Now the closing party at the end of the month is awaited.
"You can play several matches in the art world, I go forward and never stop, just to let what's in my head exist." says Mr. Brainwash when we ask him how could a forty years old and quite unknown French filmmaker in Los Angeles have become a successful artist who sells with such prices after only two years.

"Movies are magic. I couldn't stop with them. It was like an obsession. Then I suddenly fell in the art world. I moved from the camera to brush and canvas, and I started making art without stopping". Explains Mr Brainwash. He understood literally the advice his friend Bansky gave him:
"After years behind the scenes of the street art, Bansky advised me to devote myself to art. He thought my insanity was totally artistic. He inspired me to do my first show in Los Angeles. This is how it began..".
In the documentary Bansky has just directed, Exit Through The Gift Shop, the main character is Mr Brainwash. We follow the path of the artist, from cinema until the art world. Some people think that Brainwash may be one more brilliant idea of the elusive Bansky.
But does that change much?

The crazy rules of art market are much more fascinating and behind 15.000 square meters of art gallery, which attract collectors and art dealers, there is, very silently, Opera Gallery in Soho.

Mr Brainwash is playing his game, and he enjoys it, keeping a witty self-irony. Not by chance, on the outer wall of the gallery, for John and Yoko "Art is over here".

Olivia Fincato for Vogue.it

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[rad1oclash]

This man is no artist

[gruffor]

He literally ripped off all the great street artists and commercialized it. It pisses me off. Just to add to the offense, he acts as though all the art is his own creation while he has artists do it for him. Makes me really fucking angry.

[walaleitorman]

this guy is just a loser,

[SeriusGamers]

@AfroPoli Mbw doesnt make art he pays people to mkae it for him he takes credict -.- watch exit through gift shop it says banksy is dissapointed

[annoythefish]

BANKSY MAXIMUM TROLL

[BASSIST214]

because of banksy i now love stencil art.. if i saw MBW in the streets a would punch him in his fucking face.

[cfamily2010]

@chase81643

ya this guys an idiot i watched the movie and i was like wtf

[chase81643]

Just watch the movie 'exit through the gift shop'

[Bodysmoker]

@rad1oclash Everyone can be an artist. I'm a rolling artist, i can roll a joint that will be unique in every way... It evokes higher emotions inside me and other. THAT'S art.

[TheMightyJaWzz]

@rad1oclash what is art? what makes you say that?