“It don’t Gitmo better!" [Times]

You thought that the search for new pictures of the mysterious world-famous street artist Banksy had come to an end? It has not! Our earlier shot at digging up photos of the maybe-identified but still unseen artist turned out to (probably) not be him. But! A tipster has sent us a lovely present: three still shots of Banksy in action, taken from a UK documentary filmed in 2000, when he was less obsessive about hiding his identity. We also have two photos of Banksy that were featured in an article in the UK's Squall magazine (now defunct) back in 2000. And for the finale: two art prints that are reportedly drawings of Banksy in profile, dressed as the Queen of England. None are full-on face shots; but this is probably the first time all these rarely-seen images have been collected in one place. Click through to explore. Stills from the 2000 UK documentary Boom or Bust, by filmmaker Si Mitchell:

Well god damn. Banksy really is mysterious! A couple of weeks ago we showed you what was allegedly a 1999 photo of Banksy, the once-secret-but-now-maybe-not street artist. Before that, there had only been one known photo of the man in existence. But now...it looks like there's still only one known photo. Stupid Brits and their stupid names! Here's what happened: A tipster wrote in to point out that the new photo we found is probably not of Banksy, the artist; it's of Banxy, the break dancer. Well who the fuck can keep track, really? Banxy is a dancer and performer in the UK who once appeared in a dance TV show with Deborah Bull, the British ballet dancer who appears with "Banksy" in this photo:

We'll leave it up to you to decide if Alex Gardega is any good as a painter, but you have to give him props for his media savvy. The fledgling artist was the subject of a story today in the Post about bartering. (Apparently, he's been trading his work for alcohol, gas, and MRI brain scans, among other things.) If the name rings a bell, though, that might be because he's the same guy who made the paper for his $10 sketches at the Spotted Pig and for painting Bill O'Reilly into The Last Supper a few months later. If getting your name out there is a half the battle for a struggling artist, then Alex Gardega has already won! [NYP]

Have you heard? Soon you'll be able to call up art wonder Damien Hirst directly to purchase his terribly overpriced, overhyped work. Hirst "is causing even more of a stir with this auction because he's cutting out art dealer middlemen, and selling directly to collectors. Dealers take 40 to 60 percent of an artist's sale, but in this case his two big dealers in New York and London, Jay Jopling and Larry Gagosian, gave their blessings to his radical steps to shut them out." Blessings? Oh, sure, Gagosian sounds thrilled. [NYP]

Blonde actress megastar Scarlett Johannson has been accused of drug use by a random graffiti tagger! But there's even more to the imaginary rendezvous; what did you and the busty Tom Waits fan do after the party, random graffiti tagger?:

Central Park: it's sacred space worth billions. But it will be public forever! It will never be sullied by the hand of commerce, or turned into a commercial venue! Except for the huge silver Chanel "Mobile Art pavilion," modeled after a Chanel handbag, that will descend on the park this fall. But it's really an art exhibit, you see, and Chanel is giving a huge donation to be able to put it there, so the commercial angle is totally superfluous. Except that all the freaking art is "inspired by Chanel's classic 2.55 quilted-style chain handbag." You clever bastards. Larger picture of the alien-looking new kind of ad in your life, below:

With all the billions of dollars that pour into the Olympics, you'd think that the least the host committee could do would be to come up with a decent mascot. But no! In a classic case of overthinking something into oblivion, cities obsess over the stupid mascots for years, until they create some sort of awful mutant-by-committee. This year is no different: the WSJ reports that the Beijing mascot (five assorted weird animal-like creatures, pictured) is disliked even by the artist who created them. Throughout the 70s and 80s, mascots were fairly normal: a tiger, an eagle, a bear, a beaver, a gay dachsund. But in 1992 abstraction took over, and the whole enterprise went off the rails. After the jump, pictures of the Olympic mascots from '92 onwards. They suck:

Oh poor Bravo. They're soon losing their beleaguered flagship show, Project Runway, and now they're stuck with a competition show about art. As we wrote about back in January, Sarah Jessica Parker has been shopping around America Artist, in which contestants paint, sculpt, basketweave, rhythmically stilt-walk, and other artsy stuff in the hopes of furthering their sure-to-be long and luxurious art careers. And now Bravo has picked it up. Terrific. Because Deitch Artstar did so well! Add this to Date My Ex: Jo and Slade and Bravo is looking a little sickly these days. Next thing you know we'll be watching the exciting spin-off Top Sous Chef.

The notorious, mysterious, and sexy American Apparel ad spoofer raises so many philosophical questions: What is art? What is advertising? What is porn? And does showing blowjobs count as "sexual equality?" The spoofer has a long history of drawing female genitalia (and dildos). But now he or she has made the leap to showing penises for the cause-something Dov Charney can only dream of. Click through for the most overt (possibly NSFW, although it's just a drawing) example:

GOD, we've heard so much about Banksy this week. Yes, you know he's the supersecret anonymous world-famous street artist whose identity may have been revealed at last. But some people do not understand why this is the biggest art story of our generation. At least if you love democracy, freedom, and hilarity! Come along then, as we take a brief whirl through the world of Banksy: An artist that does not suck. With two dozen pictures, yo!

For years, there has only been one known photograph of the supersecret celebrity street artist Banksy, whose identity was (probably) outed this week. That one was taken in Jamaica in 2004 by a photographer who, we hear, leaked it to the media after getting angry at the artist. That was the picture that the Daily Mail used as the key clue in its yearlong investigation of his true identity. But we've just been leaked another photo that supposedly shows Banksy in 1999.

The New York subway poster art vandal, despite receiving widespread acclaim from the cognoscenti who determine who's hot these days, continues to work just as hard as when he was not yet being compared to Banksy (who, let's face it, is totally over now that we know who he is, maybe). He's retained his "ironic sloganeering" theme, and is moving strongly into "messing with faces," as well. Here are five of the anonymous subway vandal's latest ad remixes; steal them immediately, as investments:

Andres Serrano's show, titled "SHIT," will open in September at the Yvon Lambert Gallery. It'll feature five-foot photos of poo, including the artist's own! But it also has animal poo—"Bullshit" is the image on your left. The Post has already reacted predictably: "Controversial photographer Andres Serrano is again using his bodily excreta in his sickening 'art.'" (He's already used urine. What's next?) After the jump, Serrano's most famous work, 1987's Piss Christ. It's probably supposed to make us think, but mostly it just screams, "I want to get famous! OK?!!!"

I got some good news on the Facebook front last night: I am now friends with one Robin Gunningham of Bristol, UK-also known as Banksy, the formerly undercover world-famous street artist who was outed as Gunningham yesterday. (Or was he? No official confirmation yet, although the case is strong). Gunningham's Facebook page sports the same schoolboy picture that appeared in the Daily Mail's investigative story. And it has further evidence that he is, in fact, Banksy-unless the whole thing is part of a clever hoax, or the product of a third party with ulterior motives. Words and photos straight from the guy who might be a legend, after the jump:

Marissa Mayer's high opinion of her own good taste will be getting that much more insufferable now that she can tell people that she's on the board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Call it Mayer's latest attempt to play the role of Peggy Guggenheim. Thing is, Guggenheim actually collected contemporary art (and contemporary artists, if the rumored romances are to be believed). The press release names Sol Lewitt, Robert Bechtle and Robert Rauschenberg as Mayer's three favorites. Only Bechtle is still breathing — at age 76.

Could this be the end of the anonymous life of Banksy-British street artist -to-the-stars, darling of the underground and Angelina Jolie, and the most famous unidentified figure since Batman? We took a shot at solving the mystery ourselves a couple of months ago; but now the Daily Mail has done their own investigation, and we must say: it looks like they have him nailed. All the evidence is below-decide for yourself:

Banksy, the "guerilla" graffiti artist whose carefully guarded anonymity and high-profile stunts have made him millions and won him slavish adoration from Brooklyn hipsters and Hollywood celebrities, has had his cover blown. The Daily Mail says that Banksy is almost certainly a 34-year-old named Robin Gunningham. [Daily Mail]

There's a street artist in NYC by the name of D. Billy, and I sincerely hope he is being subsidized by the NYPD, because he has come up with a way to rid our streets of "unsightly" graffiti. By doing it with balloons! Just imagine how much time the sanitation department could save—just send out one guy with a needle, and he could take down an entire city's worth of balloon tags in a day. Truly a win-win solution. Plus, it's a good way to communicate Batman-like sound effects. Two more pictures of D. Billy's environmental revolution:

That troublemaker Filip Noterdaeme, the man behind the Homeless Museum of Art, is at it again! He's distributed hundreds of flyers for a discounted "sale" at the Louis Vuitton Store, a fully-functional handbag store inside the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Only, there is no actual sale: "I am only suggesting visitors ask for a special discount... My goal with this action is to confer to museum visitors the absurdity of a bluntly commercial enterprise infiltrating an art museum." Click to print out the flyer so you can go and get your special discount. [Homeless Museum]