On the trail of Banksy in San Francisco

In the last week of April, 2010 the infamous British graffiti artist known as Banksy, left his mark on six locations across San Francisco. The timing of this Banksy outbreak was no coincidence as it was an attempt to stir up publicity of his recent film Exit Through the Gift Shop that was debuting in American theaters at the same time (worth a look if you get the chance). With the help of this great KQED article, we decided to try to track all six pieces down before they disappeared. It is in the nature of the beast that much 'graffiti art' is ephemeral. See it while you can!

#1 China Town. It was heartening to see that this piece has already been preserved (behind a sheet of perspex). Though whether this provides permanent protection is another question. I assume that the heart graffiti was already present as Banksy often likes to work with 'pre-existing material'.

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#2 was at the north end of the Mission district in an empty parking lot (see the above KQED article for full locations). Again I like how Banksy integrates the surrounding into his art (in this case the trees behind the wall)

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#3 A short drive south (into the heart of the Mission district) we found the third piece. A great social comment on what has happened to native Americans in this country. We noticed that some small graffiti had already occurred over the head of the figure.

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#4 had sadly been vanquished. A local told us that the owner of the building had been told that his property had been vandalized and he simply ordered it to be painted over.

This is what it should have looked like.

#5 Now in the Haight district and we initially took a while spotting this one. This piece connects an otter and a rat character with a red line, though we couldn't get a good vantage point anywhere to see the entire piece.

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#6 Into SoMa, and another one of Banky's classic rats

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Thanks Banksy for a fun morning in San Francisco!