Has Banksy Started Creating NFT Art?
NFT is the talk of the art world for 2021, just as we anticipate which major contemporary artist other than Kenny Scharf will do an NFT art release, some of our newsletter readers have sent us information about an interesting artist with resemblance of Banksy style art that’s quickly selling out NFT works on Rarible.
That brings us the question: Is this interesting account truly from Banksy, the enigmatic and eccentric artist who takes over the art world by storm with blistering high auction prices and being the bridge between Street and Contemporary art?
https://app.rarible.com/pestsupply
Our editors took a quick peek at this Pest Supply artist profile, we think the works from this mysterious artist are very interesting with elements and hints of traditional Banksy stencil quirkiness and a carefree conceptual approach to contemporary art. And especially the two “Oil Canvas appropriation” works bring us back chills from Banksy’s Crude Oils exhibition back in 2005.
Crude Oils was a “gallery of re-mixed masterpieces, vandalism and vermin” and ran for a over a week in a small shop at 100 Westbourne Grove, London finishing on Monday 24th October 2005. Admission was free — if you could stand the thought of sharing the gallery space accompanied by around 200 live black rats. Environmental health officers came out and checked the show and found everything to be in order despite the protests from other businesses nearby. The artworks were reworked copies of well known standards of the art world including Monet, Warhol, Jack Vetrianno and Van Gogh — mainly paintings but there were also some sculptures on display too. The location — between Notting Hill and Bayswater, is presently occupied by the Whitewall Galleries chain of artwork outlets.
Moreover, as Banksy fans know, Pest Control is the artist’s official studio name, and authentications are done through Pest Control. This Rarible account’s name Pest Supply makes us wonder, is this someone paying homage to Banksy, or is it Banksy deciding to discreetly “infiltrate” the NFT art world and pulling some pranks in the near future?
NFT Art world is quickly ascending yet the quality of artworks on several platforms are inevitably mixed given how early we are in exploring this new field.
But if Banksy indeed started creating NFT and given by the quality of these works they have some high possibility to be from the man/woman himself/herself, then the future potential for these works are quite intriguing both conceptually and market-wise, knowing that an edition 600 Banksy Ballon print is now selling for $200,000+ at major auction houses:
https://www.phillips.com/detail/banksy/UK010820/20
So has Banksy Started Creating NFT Art? Do you think Pest Supply is indeed Banksy? Our editors are as puzzled as you are, but we think the works from this Pest Supply are indeed interesting and very much in line with what Banksy would do, and there’s also an edition the artist is doing which will benefit Save The Children foundation. This is very Banksy considering how much charity work the beloved street artist has done in the past decade.
Feel free to share your take and thoughts with us via our discord group or newsletter reply or simply comment below.
