Mr. Brainwash
Probably no other street artist has experienced such a rapid rise within such a brief time as the French-born Thierry Guetta under the pseudonym Mr. Brainwash.
His path of becoming the most successful artist of recent years is intricately linked to Banksy and his Oscar-winning film "Exit Through the Gift Shop". In the film, Thierry Guetta meets the street art star Banksy while working on a documentary about the graffiti scene, who inspires him to become active as an artist using the pseudonym Mr. Brainwash. Therefore, the rumour persists that the Frenchman Brainwash is just a fictitious person invented by Banksy. And that actually Bansky creates the works himself.
In fact, Mr. Brainwash repeatedly refers to well-known motifs in his works, not only by Banksy. He plays with all the available references of Pop Art, commercial advertising, and Street Art. He repeatedly includes well-known pictures and people from pop culture in his motifs. Madonna even had Mr. Brainwash design the cover for her album "Celebrations", which was strongly inspired by Andy Warhol.
His first exhibition titled "Life is Beautiful", in 2008 in the disused CBS Studios in Los Angeles became an enormous success. More than 100 works and various live performances attracted art lovers and Hollywood stars en masse and brought in over $1 million in sales in just the first week. Since then, Mr. Brainwash has been one of the busiest artists of his time. Constant new shows and projects in New York, Los Angeles and Europe have ensured that Mr. Brainwash has become a shooting star in his own right.
