Banksy? New street art appears in Leamington Spa

A piece of street art, seemingly the work of world renowned artist Banksy, has appeared in Leamington Spa.

The work can be found on a wall directly behind the Helping Hands community project’s recently opened shop on Gloucester Street.

It has been painted in iconic Banksy style, using a black and white stencil outline with small amounts of red and is marked with his signature tag. However, in spite of generating local interest and excitement, the artwork has not yet been claimed by Banksy and so its authenticity remains up for debate.

The piece appears to depict former chancellor George Osborne with a clown nose and mouse ears. The figure £555billion – the increase in UK national debt while Osborne was in office – is spray painted across the bottom, in keeping with Banksy’s tendency to portray underlying satirical, political messages in his work.

Lianne Kirkman, manager of Helping Hands – a charity project assisting local homeless and vulnerable people – commented on the appearance of the street art behind her shop, saying: “we assumed it was fake at first but all the interest has got us thinking.”

She explained she is aware the local street artists working around Leamington do have national connections, but added that although a connection to Banksy is possible, “they would never comment on this.”

In fact, local company BRINK Contemporary Arts – who create most of the street art around Leamington and at local festivals – had only recently been commissioned by Helping Hands for their ‘sleep-out’ fundraiser held on Friday 11 November.

BRINK painted two graffiti art pieces during the sleep-out, which can now be seen by All Saints Church just a few metres from where the alleged Banksy has appeared. This has generated suspicion that they were actually responsible for it.

However, Tim Robottom, founder of BRINK, stated that the suspected Banksy had nothing to do with him or his artists. He explained that: “because BRINK are pretty well known regionally and are the only street art and graffiti organisation in Warwickshire it stands to reason people will look to us for confirmation.”

He added that while he thought the piece looked a bit “suspect”, Banksy is known to care about issues such as homelessness and does create art with “poignant timing and a connection to events happening nearby,” like last week’s sleep-out. He concluded that unless Banksy were to respond to the claims it was impossible to know for sure.

Lianne added that regardless of whether the piece was real or not, it had given Helping Hands a lot of attention and so she was: “grateful to whoever did it”.

When asked, the opinion of Warwick University students seemed to be divided over whether the work is genuine.

Lucy Ovanesian, a first-year History of Art student said: “I think it’s very likely that the graffiti is a Bansky, there is a definite presence of a political message behind it!”

Nina Jackowski, a second-year Politics and International Studies student, felt she recognised the typical, “satirical side of Banksy’s work”, in the “red nose which makes a joke out of Osborne’s credibility”.

Jordanne Wood, President of Warwick Students’ Union Art Society, felt that due to obvious stylistic similarities to Banksy paintings it was “unsurprising” that people thought it was genuine.

However, she questions its legitimacy and went on to say: “my doubt is because of the really minimal detail and the fact that Banksy doesn’t really sign his graffiti anymore. I would predict the piece is by another artist taking inspiration from Banksy but I hope to find out.”