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1. Mobile Waterfall Truck
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Although Banksy is primarily celebrated for his stencil and spray-paint murals, he has consistently pushed boundaries by experimenting with diverse mediums and taking bold artistic risks. One of the standout pieces from his “Better Out Than In” exhibition is also one of the most technically complex. This piece features a functional waterfall mounted on a delivery truck, traveling through the city streets. Among the two mobile trucks he’s incorporated into this series (alongside his work on stationary vehicles), this piece stands out due to its operational water feature and whimsical charm, making it far more intricate than his other truck piece, which is filled with eerily lifelike stuffed animals mimicking a slaughterhouse scene.
2. The Elephant in the Room
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During his 2006 debut U.S. exhibition in Los Angeles, Banksy showcased a mix of traditional artworks, large-scale installations, and even a live elephant. Titled “Barely Legal,” the exhibition took an ironic turn when U.S. authorities declared that his use of Tai, a real elephant painted in pink and gold to blend with the room’s wallpaper, violated the law. While Banksy had secured permits for Tai’s presence, painting the elephant from head to toe was deemed illegal—and a painstaking process to execute.
3. Going to the Zoo
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Many of Banksy’s works have been erased or dismantled, but two of his most daring pieces are so elusive that they feel almost legendary. These works—among his most hazardous, audacious, and unlawful—were briefly displayed at the London Zoo and Bristol Zoo. Banksy infiltrated animal enclosures to leave his mark, making the pieces as risky as they were illegal. At the London Zoo, he tagged the penguin enclosure with 7-foot-tall letters reading, “We’re bored of fish.” In Bristol, he scrawled, “I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring” on an elephant enclosure wall.
4. The West Bank
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In late summer 2005, Banksy created nine striking pieces on the Israeli West Bank barrier, a wall separating Israel from the Palestinian territories. These works are notable for their complexity and the challenging environment in which they were created. The politically charged area is heavily monitored, yet Banksy managed to produce large-scale pieces with a strong political message and a recurring theme of seeking paradise. While the wall features numerous protest graffiti, Banksy’s contributions stand out as the most iconic.
5. The Phone Box
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When Banksy tackles large-scale projects, he doesn’t hold back. In 2006, he crafted a sculpture of a classic red London phone box (reminiscent of Dr. Who), crumpled it, drove a pickaxe through it, and made it appear as though it was bleeding. He then left it on a side street in London’s bustling Soho district. The mystery of how he achieved this without being noticed, or even how he created the sculpture, remains unanswered.
6. Guantanamo Bay Comes to Disneyland
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Banksy’s art has always carried a political edge, but he made a bold statement on international politics with a stunt at Disneyland in September 2006. He smuggled in an inflatable doll dressed as a Guantanamo Bay detainee (wearing an orange jumpsuit, black hood, and handcuffs), inflated it, and placed it on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. The installation remained for over an hour before the ride was shut down to remove it. Considering most visitors can’t even bring outside drinks into Disneyland, this feat was astonishing.
7. One Nation Under CCTV
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One of Banksy’s most iconic works, though now removed, was created in April 2008 on a massive London wall. This piece, his largest at the time, critiqued the UK’s extensive use of CCTV surveillance. The building-sized artwork featured the phrase “ONE NATION UNDER CCTV,” accompanied by a child-like artist figure and a vigilant security guard. Remarkably, Banksy scaled the wall and set up scaffolding to complete the piece—right under the watchful eyes of CCTV cameras that failed to capture him in the act.
8. Artworks in the Museum, New York Edition
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In March 2005, Banksy bypassed traditional methods of displaying art in museums by installing his own pieces in four of New York City’s most prestigious institutions: the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Brooklyn Museum. His works remained unnoticed for an entire day, even as visitors observed pieces that seemed out of place, before museum officials realized the unauthorized additions.
9. Artworks in the Museum, London Edition
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Later in 2005, Banksy brought his museum antics back to London, targeting gallery 49 of the British Museum. There, he installed his own interpretation of a cave painting, depicting a primitive hunter pushing a shopping cart, complete with a descriptive placard. Once again, he managed to add his work to a renowned museum unnoticed, and the piece remained on display for several days.
10. The Bristol Exhibition
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Four years later, Banksy executed his most ambitious museum stunt yet—though this time, it was officially sanctioned by the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. Only two museum officials were aware of the plan, as Banksy and his team worked overnight to replace existing artworks with a hundred of his own creations. These ranged from a large-scale truck installation to classic stencils, and even included a tiny, intricately designed mouse placed in the natural history section.
11. Exit Through the Gift Shop
While many artists have transitioned from visual art to filmmaking, Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop stands out as a daring, unconventional, and complex project. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature, but its true intrigue lies in the story of Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash), a French street artist whose meteoric rise is both wildly entertaining and potentially fabricated. The documentary offers a rare glimpse into Banksy’s world, with the artist reportedly spending a year editing nearly 10,000 hours of footage—most of it unusable. Adding to the complexity is the popular theory that Banksy himself is Mr. Brainwash, making the film a fascinating enigma.
