Urban Art Exhibition featuring Banksy

On Saturday 20th March and running through to Sunday 4th April, Creative Art Gallery Woodstock are proudly showcasing Urban Art, a rare exhibition of Original and Limited Edition pieces by renowned British graffiti artist Banksy, along with those of legendary pioneering French graffiti artist Blek Le Rat, Micallef, Titifreak and outstanding local stencil artist Marvo.

For two weeks only, Creative Gallery Woodstock are transforming their exhibition space into a platform to present some of the most exciting and pioneering works of graffiti art of recent times. Including a unique piece by Reading based graffiti/stencil artist Marvo, covering the gallery window.

Banksy, whose fans include Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt, is a British graffiti artist, specializing in smart, humorous, social and political observations. Although the identity of Banksy is unknown, his guerilla style work has sold for millions worldwide, capturing the laughable, ridiculous, offensive and absurd elements of life, and exhibiting it in full view of the public on walls, tunnels and floors all over southern England.

‘‘The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.’’ BANKSY

Legendry French street artist Blek le Rat is the great ancestor: the grandfather of stencils. Everybody in street art owes him a massive debt, as it was his moves in Paris in 1981 that put graffiti and stencil art on the map. British graffiti artist Banksy has acknowledged Blek's influence saying "every time I think I've painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek Le Rat has done it as well, only twenty years earlier." Blek Le Rat was the first artist to use stencil art as a form of expressionism and succeed. His work can be seen all over the world, from tiny rats in Paris to life size figures in New York.

Antony Micallef has exhibited extensively worldwide is cities such as London, L.A and Tokyo. He has had work at the National Portrait gallery as well as Tate Britain and Royal Academy.

“The trouble with pop imagery is that it doesn't really go deeper than the surface. You have to drag it down and challenge it to make it interesting.” Micallef

Titifreak is a well-known illustrator and graffiti artist. Before moving towards graffiti in 1996 his background was in comic art. Although his work can be detailed, he strives for simplicity in his art. People and spaces inspire his art and the urban environment is always present in his energetic drawings, which include buildings, electric tramlines and other elements of city life.

Marvo studied in London at the LCP, and was highly influence by stencil and paste up artist Blek Le Rat. He has always tried to be as creative as possible, growing from vibrant graffiti, fly tagging, magnetic tagging and also poster art, but to stencil Art. Most stencil artists compose their cut-outs very quickly, this results in chunky images and quick processes. Marvo uses stencils with far more detail in them, usually photographing, the set-up first using models and props, before taking the long method of printing and arrange the images and creating and cutting the stencils. “When I got caught doing a piece in London in 1987, our cans got confiscated, as we walked away, we heard the underground attendant shaking and spraying a face on the wall we were working on.....who knows, we may of recruited a new trooper!"

Creative's exhibition will follow the March 5th release of ‘Exit through the gift shop’, a documentary film following the world’s most infamous street artists.

All of the work is for sale and ranges in price from £250 to £10,000.