BANKSY EXHIBITIONS AND PRANKS // THE VENICE BIENNALE MAY, 2019

  • Image shown on Banksy's Instagram page of a cruise ship in the Venice canals
    Venice Biennale, 2019
    Image shown on Banksy's Instagram page (@banksy), Venice Biennale, Venice, May 2019.
    © Banksy. Reproduced for educational purposes only.
    In May 2019, Banksy appeared at the Venice Biennale in his own unconventional way, setting up an unlicensed stall in the streets rather than exhibiting in the official show. The artist revealed the installation in a video posted to Instagram, captioned “setting out my stall at the Venice Biennale.” What at first looked like a collection of romantic Venetian oil paintings turned out, when arranged together, to depict a colossal cruise ship dominating the Grand Canal. This biting work, titled Venice in Oil, directly confronted the environmental and cultural damage caused by mass tourism and the intrusion of cruise liners into the fragile historic city.
     
    Although authorities swiftly shut down Banksy’s stall due to a lack of permits, the intervention made its mark. By staging the piece outside the official Biennale, Banksy drew greater attention to Venice’s ongoing struggle with overtourism and environmental degradation. The guerrilla installation became one of the most talked-about events of the Biennale season, underlining Banksy’s ability to turn satire and spectacle into urgent commentary on global issues.
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  • “Setting out my stall at the Venice Biennale.”

    – Banksy 

    In 2019, Banksy made an uninvited appearance at the Venice Biennale with Venice in Oil, a guerrilla installation critiquing the destructive impact of mass tourism. Presented on an unlicensed street stall, the work consisted of nine oil paintings that, when pieced together, revealed a vast cruise liner dwarfing the architecture of the Grand Canal. The imagery was no accident — it served as a direct indictment of how luxury tourism threatens Venice’s ecological balance, cultural heritage, and fragile infrastructure.
    The cruise ship looms as both a literal and symbolic intruder, representing not only environmental degradation but also the prioritisation of profit over preservation. By situating his critique during the Biennale, itself often accused of privileging spectacle over substance, Banksy sharpened his attack on global systems that commodify cities as attractions. His work questioned who Venice really serves: its residents, its history, or the international tourist industry that risks overwhelming it.
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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