In 1971, Blek le Rat took a trip to the United States, where he was amazed by the graffiti he saw all over the city centers. When he returned to Paris, he began to try his own hand at this form of expression. Seeing Fascist stencils in Italy during his youth, as well as political paintings in French Algeria, left a lasting impression on him, and in 1981 he decided to start making his own stencil works around Paris, beginning with small rats. Like Bristol's Banksy, Blek le Rat sees the rat as an ideal symbol for the graffiti artist, as both operate under cover of darkness to evade capture and eradication. Blek le Rat explains, "I began to spray some small rats in the streets of Paris because rats are the only wild animals living in cities, and only rats will survive when the human race disappears and dies out." He then moved on to larger stencil projects, becoming the first known artist to work with stencils to create pictures rather than just text. He explains the benefits of working with stencils, saying, "There are no accidents with stencils. Images created this way are clean and beautiful. You prepare it in your studio and then you can reproduce it indefinitely. I'm not good enough to paint freehand. Stencil is a technique well suited to the streets because it's fast. You don't have to deal with the worry of the police catching you."

Banksy (13 October 2013). "Better Out Than In". Archived from the original on 18 October 2013 . Retrieved 17 October 2013. In April 2014, he created a piece in Cheltenham, near the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) headquarters, which depicts three men wearing sunglasses and using listening devices to "snoop" on a telephone box, evidently criticising the recent global surveillance disclosures of 2013. This was only confirmed by Banksy as his work later in June 2014. [211] This piece 'disappeared' on 20 August 2016 during renovations to the building it was on, and may have been destroyed. [212] Banksy art is graffiti, rules town hall". The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 October 2008. Archived from the original on 31 March 2013.Wells, Jeff (15 August 2011). "Guerrilla artists at war over style accusations". Western Daily Press. p.3. Banksy Existencilism Book". Art of the State. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009 . Retrieved 26 January 2009. Graffiti is now its genre and can be described as such depending on the context in which it is seen and used. Since popular forms of graffiti staples, such as bubble graffiti and wildstyle graffiti have been utilized in digital design, we identify it as graffiti by style rather than the space or surface it is used on. Whereas, some mural artworks that have no text can be described as graffiti simply because they are created with spray paint and exist on walls. Banksy's Murals Turn Up In Gaza Strip". NPR. 26 February 2015. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Dery, Mark (2017). Culture Jamming: Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance. United States: NYU Press. ISBN 9781479879724.

In an interview with the BBC in 2003, which was rediscovered in November 2023, reporter Nigel Wrench asked if Banksy is called Robert Banks; Banksy responded that his forename is Robbie. [16] The Mail on Sunday claimed in 2008 that Banksy is Robin Gunningham, [17] born on 28 July 1974 in Yate, 12 miles (19km) from Bristol. [18] [19] [13] Several of Gunningham's associates and former schoolmates at Bristol Cathedral School have corroborated this, and, in 2016, a study by researchers at the Queen Mary University of London using geographic profiling found that the incidence of Banksy's works correlated with the known movements of Gunningham. [20] [21] [22] [23] According to The Sunday Times, Gunningham began employing the name Robin Banks, which eventually became Banksy. Two cassette sleeves featuring his art work from 1993, for the Bristol band Mother Samosa, exist with his signature. [24] British Graffiti artist Banksy in Olympics controversy". Ahram Online. 27 July 2012. Archived from the original on 15 March 2014 . Retrieved 30 April 2014.

Style the Graffiti

A guard/police officer with a balloon animal was painted in the Canadian city of Toronto in 2010, and has since been removed from its original location and preserved. [208]