Banksy Film Rocks Sundance

UK guerrilla tagger turns out to have posh background

(NEWSER) - An exhaustive investigation has uncovered the carefully guarded identity of guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy, the Mail on Sunday claims. The man whose works are coveted by celebrities and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars is Robin Gunningham, now 35, who attended a posh private school as the son of middle-class parents in Bristol, in the west of England. More»

Now your grandmother can be a vandal

(NEWSER) - Graffiti’s latest trend stems from a grandmotherly tradition—and it’s more likely to prompt laughter than arrests, proponents say. Yarn bombers knit sweaters and cozies for public objects from lampposts to cars to mailboxes, the New York Times reports. Victims have included the iconic Wall Street bull and the statue of Rocky outside Philadelphia’s Museum of Art. “Street art and graffiti are usually so male dominated,” says one yarn bomber. “Yarn bombing is more feminine. It’s like graffiti with grandma sweaters.” More»

User-generated documentary will record July 24, 2010

(NEWSER) - Want to be in a YouTube movie directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced by Ridley Scott? Record your ordinary daily life on July 24, upload it to YouTube, and you just might end up in the feature-length documentary "Life in a Day," a compilation of user-submitted footage from around the world. "I hope it will be something that will open people's eyes to the possibilities of user-generated film," Macdonald says. More»

(NEWSER) - Street artist Shephard Fairey plead guilty today to three counts of vandalism for displaying stickers and posters around Boston without permission, the Globe reports. He must pay a fine and is prohibited from carrying the tools of his trade—like wheat paste and brushes—in the county for 2 years. Fairey is most famous for his Obama “Hope” poster, though his trademark image is a stenciled likeness of wrestler Andre the Giant and the word “Obey.” More»

(NEWSER) - Controversial artist Banksy has mounted a huge show at his hometown Bristol City Museum—but the secretive vandal is nowhere to be seem, the Times of London reports. The exhibition was planned in secret through Banksy’s representatives. “We couldn’t even tell the council and the whole thing could have been a huge hoax,” the museum’s director said. The show includes paintings and sculpture. More»