Banksy London Street Art at the Barbican Centre

The early hours of Sunday morning, 17th September saw the walls of London graced with not one but two new street artworks from the elusive British street artist Banksy. 

The street artist shared the two pieces on his official verified Banksy instagram account at 2pm this afternoon announcing the new works and hinting at their location near the Barbican Centre in central London.

Two new London Banksy artworks
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As we are based in East London, we grabbed our camera bag and jumped on a bus towards the Barbican Centre shortly after spotting the London Banksy artworks online, hoping to capture some images of the new street artworks.

After a quick 15-minute bus trip we took a short walk around the Barbican Centre site on our arrival trying to track down the new Banksy works. From the photos Banksy had shared on his Instagram account we knew the works we located on the ground level of the Barbican site and it wasn't long before we located the two new London Banksy works spraypainted on opposite walls on Golden Lane right beneath the Barbican Centre.


Banksy London Street Art at the Barbican Centre, London

  • Close up of the first of two new Banksy in London artworks inspired by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Banksy Street Art in London at the Barbican Centre
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The two works by Banksy have been inspired by pioneering New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the show Boom For Real which opened at the Barbican Centre a week after Banksy created the two new street artworks. 

According to a series of posts shared on the official Banksy Instagram account this afternoon, Banksy has said: ‘Major new Basquiat show opens at the Barbican - a place that is normally very keen to clean any graffiti from its walls.”

The larger of the two works references Basquiat’s painting ‘Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump’ and sees a character representing Basquiat being searched by the police. In another of his Instagram posts featuring the above work Banksy, has said the piece is a ‘“Portrait of Basquiat being welcomed by the Metropolitan Police - an (unofficial) collaboration with the new Basquiat show.”

Two Banksy artworks spray-painted in London at the Barbican Centre

It wasn't long before crowds began to gather in front of the wall, all wanting to catch a glimpse of the new Banksy works.

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Two Banksy artworks spray-painted in London at the Barbican Centre

The paint on the larger of the two London Banksy artworks was still wet to touch in parts when we arrived this afternoon to shoot the artwork, suggesting that it was installed in the early hours of the morning.

London Banksy Street Art at the Barbican Centre

The second Banksy work spraypainted on a wall at the Barbican Centre.

Ferris Wheel London Banksy at the Barbican Centre
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The second smaller artwork from Banksy is located opposite the larger work on the other side of the road and sees a white/ silver on black paint stencil of a queue of people waiting to buy tickets from a booth for the Ferris wheel.

The Ferris wheel carriages have been replaced with crowns rendered in chalk, a symbol which frequently featured in Basquiat's early works.

London Banksy Street Art at the Barbican Centre

  • Close up detail of the Ferris wheel booth and the chalk crowns.

Street art stencil works appear in London at the Barbican by artist Banksy

  • It's wasn't long before word got out and large crowds began to gather in front of the wall to photograph the latest London Banksy street artwork at the Barbican Centre.

We streamed some live video footage of the two new London Banksy works on our Hookedblog twitter account on our arrival at the Barbican Centre this afternoon, if you missed the live stream you can rewatch the short clip with some of the details above.

Boom For Real Basquiat Exhibition
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The Boom For Real exhibition was the first large-scale exhibition in the UK of the work of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960—1988), one of the most significant painters of the 20th century.

The show featured over 100 of Basquiat's works on loan from international museums and private collections and included rare film, photography, and archive material.

Fresh London Banksy works appear at the Barbican Centre, London. #streetart #Banksy #Hookedblog
 Fresh London Banksy works appear at the Barbican Centre, London. #streetart #Banksy #Hookedblog

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Revisiting the London Banksy now under perspex

Banksy in London Update
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Since first photographing the London Banksy stencil works at the Barbican Centre back in 2017 when the two stencil pieces appeared we had not been back to the Barbican Centre to revisit the artworks.

Our initial visit to the artwork in 2017 as featured above was before any of the additions made to the piece. Shortly after the Banksy works first appeared in 2017, and after our first visit US artist and actor Danny Minnick added some of his own work to the left of the Banksy artwork.

As if often the case with Banksy artworks in the UK, the Barbican Centre Board decided to keep the Banksy artworks and it was covered with a protective layer of perspex. The additional artwork added to the Banksy Barbican piece by Danny Minnick has also been included under the perspex layer covering the wall. 

The Barbican Centre Exhibition Halls signage which featured in our first visit photos is no longer present. You can see the area to the top right of the standing figure where the signage has been removed from the wall. As some of the artwork overlapped onto the sign,  we can only assume this street signed was stolen.

Where to Find Banksy's in London
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Should you want to visit the two Banksy artworks in person, both of the artworks can be found at the Barbican Centre on  Golden Lane, E2.

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