Bologna – His last stencil complaint dates back to a few days ago, on the wall of a building half-destroyed by bombing in Borodyanka, an urban settlement in the Kiev oblast. A judoka child, who would make one think of Ukraine, knocks out an adult, with a reference to Putin, suspended as honorary president of the international Judo federation.
While Banksy’s javelin also reaches the streets of Ukraine, the voice of the faceless street artist joins the chorus of counter-current colleagues who meet in Bologna on the occasion of an exhibition dedicated to the most provocative, unconventional and revolutionary works of our time.
From 11 November to 7 May the enfants terribles of art, Jago, Banksy and TvBoy, meet at Palazzo Albergati to tell, through 60 masterpieces, some of the most transgressive stories of Italian and international public art, through a dialogue between the mysterious English artist and other influential Italian colleagues of the moment .
Following the thread of provocation, the exhibition Jago, Banksy, TvBoy and other counter-current stories it is presented as a monographic of the most significant works of each protagonist. Like this Girl with Baloon And Bomb Love by Banksy wink at Circulatory system it’s at Self memory of Iago to give in to the series of kisses and that of the heroes of TvBoy.

Banksy, Bomb Love, Lithograph, 50 x 70 cm, 2003, Pop House Gallery

In dialogue with the three are those artists who took inspiration from Jago, Banksy and TvBoy, or who simply fit into the “counter-current” path that characterizes them. There is Obey – on display with the famous manifesto Hopemade in 2008 to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign – and there’s Ravo with The girl with the Pearl Earring and then Laika with his famous Not this “game” up to Pau with its series of Santa Suerte.

A dialogue divided into four sections invites the public to grasp correspondences, orientations and trends related to art and European street art. We start with Iago, born in 1987, the first artist to send a marble sculpture, The First Baby, on the International Space Station, to continue, in the second section, with Banksy. Terrorism, war crimes, the economic crisis, bullying, abuse at work creep into his figures with disenchanted humor, transforming walls, walls, stairs, anonymous street corners into spaces for reflection.

Andrea Ravo Mattoni, Vermeer, The girl with a pearl earring, Spray on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2022, Pop House Gallery

Salvatore Benintende, aka TvBoy, raised in Milan, Sicilian blood, moved to Barcelona for love, is at the center of the third section of the path with his ideal kisses between contemporary icons and a language that delves into the television bombing suffered by his generation and by which TVBOY, playing on this concept right from the name, invites us to unmark ourselves. From the continuous, exaggerated, ravenous production of TVBOY, the exhibition projects us into the fourth section, among the graffiti by Andrea Ravo Mattoni that animate the immortal masterpieces of modern art normally exhibited in museums.

TvBoy, Hope, Mixed technique on canvas, 146 x 144 cm, 2022 Pop Ho use Gallery

The wall, the highest expression of Street Art, with road signs and wooden fences, is at the center of the works by Thierry Guetta, alias Mr Brainwash, while a strong bond with matter characterizes the figures of Pau, poised between sacred and profane. A disenchanted and ironic vision connotes the language of Laika, a synchronously independent, mysterious and free artist, with his ephemeral tableau vivant. The last message is entrusted to Hopehope in fact, the most effective American political illustration since the time of Uncle Sam created by Obey and which made the victory of Barack Obama memorable, the first African American to hold the office of President of the United States of America.
The exhibition is open every day from 10 to 20 (the ticket office closes one hour earlier).