Mr Brainwash (real name Thierry Guetta) is a French street and pop artist who rose to fame through his collaboration with Banksy in the 2010 Academy-nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. He was both featured in and responsible for the filming of the project.
The artist’s debut exhibition Life is Beautiful (2008) had sales of five figures for single works and received praise from British street artist Banksy.
The following year, Madonna commissioned Mr Brainwash to design the cover for her album Celebration. His major auction debut occurred at Philips in 2010 where Charlie Chaplin Pink sold for $122,500, from an upper estimate of $70,000. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Mr Brainwash is changing the face of street art as it is represented in UK galleries with his unique brand of positivity and his bold artworks built around such messages of hope as ‘Life is beautiful’, ‘never give up’ or follow your dreams’. Innovative and fearless, his work embraces a riot of themes and styles, statements and jokes, commentary and chaos; combining elements from pop art’s past, from classical paintings and from the raw components of his street art beginnings, he creates larger-than-life celebrations of culture, imagination and sheer audacity.
His raw visual take on popular culture and mass consumption has won Mr Brainwash legions of fans, leading to international exhibitions, high profile celebrity collaborations and a recurring residency at Art Basel. Although he loves to put on a show in his now home city of LA, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, Seoul, New York and many other cities have also welcomed him as a breath – or perhaps a hurricane – of fresh air.
He has come full circle from his first ever solo show in LA in 2008; December 2022 saw the opening of the long-awaited Mr Brainwash Art Museum in Beverly Hills, hosting a one-of-a-kind exhibition exploring his evolution.
While his imaginative and often outrageous construction of gallery exhibitions and art shows has continued to attract attention and adulation, there is a more serious side to Mr Brainwash. While undertaking solo exhibitions and his residency at Art Basel each year he creates every possible opportunity to engage the public in the world of art and convince them that ‘Life is beautiful’.
He gives seminars at American universities and international conferences and is always keen to give something back to the community and the streets that made him. His fundraising activities are wide ranging; as well as supporting organisations such as the Prince’s Trust for the benefit of vulnerable youth, he supports the LA LGBT Center and has partnered with Product RED to raise AIDS awareness. His artwork has given him a platform and allowed him to form some amazing connections, including with former First Lady Michelle Obama in support of her organization Let Girls Learn and with Pope Francis to raise funds for the latter’s youth foundation, Scholas.
