Subversive street artist Banksy is not a fan of museums and galleries, once writing that inside their rooms, "you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires".
Nor does the famously anti-capitalist mystery Brit support people profiting from his work. In 2022 he accused fashion giant Guess of "helping themselves" to his motifs. In 2018 he shredded his own painting Girl with Balloon, after it sold for almost $1.9 million (a move that ultimately backfired, increasing its value 20 fold).
It's no surprise, then, that Banksy has not endorsed an exhibition of his art that landed in Australia this week; he denounced a previous iteration of the show as a "fake", "organised entirely without the artist's knowledge or involvement".
But, like the artist himself, the people behind The Art of Banksy: Without Limits are unapologetic.
"This is how it has to be," curator Kemal Gurkaynak, a Turkish businessman, tells ABC Arts.
"I have been criticised for taking art off the streets and onto the walls, but it is important to share it with people. Banksy underlines messages that could save humanity. It is about raising awareness of what's happening in our world, what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in Syria, what's happening in the Mediterranean. People are still dying out there."
Mr Gurkaynak is the managing director of Muse Marketing and Entertainment, which has partnered with Fever — a company that helps stage and promote events — for the exhibition, which has previously shown in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US.
Its first Australian stop is in Brisbane, with Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth to follow (dates and venues are yet to be confirmed).
At Brisbane's Queens Plaza mall, in the CBD, the entrance — which draws inspiration from Banky's 2015 apocalyptic theme-park Dismaland — is sandwiched between a Thai restaurant and a dumpling house.
Once home to a Coles supermarket, the vast space is now an homage to the master of stencil graffiti.
There are several rooms exploring Banky's key political messages — around conflict, consumerism, capitalism — through murals, prints, sculptures and installations. One section is dedicated to Banksy's activism for refugees, another includes reproductions of several murals that appeared in war-torn Ukraine last year.
There is also a mirrored "infinity room" where animations of Banksy's art are projected onto the walls, ceiling and floor — think blockbuster digital exhibitions Van Gogh Alive or Monet and Friends, on a smaller scale.
The exhibition includes several of the artist's best-known works and motifs — Kissing Coppers, Girl With Balloon, Laugh Now, and repeated rats and monkeys — as well as more confronting murals, including Napalm: an image of Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald frolicking with "Napalm girl".
Of the 150 works on display, 34 are certified originals — the private collection of Mr Gurkaynak and his partner.
It can be hard to tell if you are viewing a reproduction or not. For Mr Gurkaynak, authenticity is beside the point — real or replica, each work's ability to provoke thought is what matters.
If it were up to him, there wouldn't even be wall plaques providing additional context for the pieces: "The art is the storyteller. It's not like looking at a Picasso or a Michelangelo — Banksy is shaking you."
(Banksy would likely prefer this too; it is not hard to imagine him cringing at the text beside his stencil Because I'm Worthless, which reads: "A delicious send-up of the nauseating, ubiquitous, vapid L'Oreal campaign strapline … We don't suppose L'Oreal asked Banksy to do a commercial for them, though he clearly is so worth it.")
'Copyright is for losers'
Bringing the spirit of street art to an indoor venue was never going to be easy, and even though the exhibition has been adapted to fit the venue, there is a dissonance between its stark white walls and its gritty themes.
For fans, it may be impossible to shake the knowledge that it's being staged without the blessing of Banksy, who famously said nobody should have to pay to see graffiti — only to have it removed.
Under UK law, Banksy automatically owns the copyright to his works, allowing him to claim royalties and have a say over how they are used.
But there's a catch: For him to ever enforce his copyright, he would need to prove he is the "unquestionable owner" of the work – and that would mean revealing his identity.
In his 2005 book Wall and Piece, Banksy wrote that "copyright is for losers" — comments later cited by the European Union Intellectual Property Office as it ruled against him in a trademark case (a judgement that was subsequently overturned).
But Banksy draws a distinction between the use of his work for "personal amusement" and for profit.
"I wrote 'copyright is for losers' in my (copyrighted) book and still encourage anybody to take and amend my art for their own personal amusement, but not for profit or making it look like I've endorsed something when I haven't," he states on his website.
Mr Gurkaynak is adamant he is not doing anything wrong.
"Once I started to do this business, [I asked] one of my friends who owns a gallery, 'If I put a Banksy artwork inside the gallery and I put a table at the door and I charge $5 for people to come in, is it legal or illegal? It's 100 per cent legal," he told ABC Arts.
"And then if I put more things [in the gallery] related to the artist? No problem."
Off the street, onto the walls
While street art is usually seen for free, Mr Gurkaynak says The Art of Banksy: Without Limits, which is ticketed at $38-$40 for an adult, is a special case.
"If you wanted to see 150 pieces of Banksy, it would take three or four years, and you will spend a fortune travelling all over the world," he says.
"And don't forget, a lot of what Banksy is doing is stolen for the black market. So you cannot always go onto the street and see the art."
There is no doubt about the widespread appeal of Banksy, who, like Warhol before him, has been credited with opening up the art world to those who did not previously feel included.
The Art of Banksy: Without Limits is perhaps best viewed as a celebration of the artist and his philosophy — an exhibition about Banksy, rather than a Banksy exhibition.
It offers an (unauthorised) opportunity to view Banksy's work at scale – and reflect on the big messages that emerge.
"You can come and spend one hour, and it maybe changes your worldview, how you think about things," Mr Gurkaynak says.
"Banksy underlines issues with war, terrorism, refugees, too many other things. That is why we invest in this. That is why we are putting the artwork, and his intelligence, on display."
The Art of Banksy: Without Limits is in Brisbane until July 8 and will then head to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Perth.
