BANKSY EXHIBITIONS AND PRANKS // RIVINGTON STREET TUNNEL LONDON, MAY 2000

  • Banksy Official Exhibit 2000 Shoreditch London street art mural in Rivington Street Tunnel
    Banksy, Official Exhibit, 31 May 2000.
    Rivington Street Tunnel, Shoreditch, London.
    © Banksy.
    Banksy’s Rivington Street works are often described as his first unofficial exhibition in London. On 31 May 2000, he unveiled twelve stencilled pieces on the walls of a former utility entrance that flanked what is now the entrance to Cargo nightclub in Shoreditch. Speaking to The Independent before the opening, Banksy described the project as “my greatest hits,” a retrospective of early stencils drawn from his back catalogue.
     
    The idea for the show came to Banksy after leaving a pub one evening, debating with a friend how simple it might be to hold an art exhibition in London without permission. The resulting works were a playful yet defiant gesture, turning a disused urban space into an outdoor gallery. Rivington Street set the tone for Banksy’s career in the capital, blending irreverence with innovation and positioning Shoreditch as an early centre for his street interventions.
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  • “On the wall will be my greatest hits.”

    – Banksy, The Independent, 2000

    Without seeking permission, he transformed the walls on either side of the entrance to what is now Cargo nightclub into an open-air gallery. Twelve stencils from his early back catalogue were installed, including motifs that would later become some of his most recognisable images.
     
    The idea for the show came, as Banksy later recounted, after a night in the pub, debating how easy it would be to mount an exhibition without formal approval. True to that spirit, Rivington Street became a guerrilla intervention, marking Banksy’s arrival in the capital and setting the tone for his irreverent approach to both art-making and exhibition practice. The blocked-up utility entrance became his canvas, a forgotten corner of the city repurposed into an urban gallery.
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      SIGNED EDITIONS

    • Banksy Show Me The Monet 2005

      ORIGINAL WORKS

    • Banksy's mural of a rhinoceros on a car

      STREET WORKS