Mr Brainwash (Thierry Guetta)

Thierry Guetta, also known as Mr Brainwash, is a French street artist who arrived in Los Angeles as a teenager. Before becoming an artist he owned a vintage store in the city, but his great passion was film. Wherever he went he brought his video camera along, attempting to capture everything in his environment. On a trip to Paris in 1999 he came to realise that the acclaimed street artist Space Invader, whose real identity had been kept a secret, was actually his own cousin. He began following Space Invader around with his camera and became fascinated by street art as an art form.

On his return to Los Angeles he gravitated towards the American street art scene and ended up meeting the famous Shepard Fairey. For close to a year Guetta observed him as part of a film project, whilst also documenting other street artists. Shortly after the meeting with Fairey, Guetta finally met the anonymous and world-renowned Banksy, who also allowed Guetta to film him. Guetta put together all the material he had on the street artists and made it into a film, which was mostly a collection of fragmented clips that Banksy called “unwatchable”. However, Banksy felt that the raw material was good enough and chose to try and do something of his own with it.

Whilst Banksy took over the film material he suggested that Guetta should instead try and create his own art. Guetta took his advice and began painting under the name Mr Brainwash. His first exhibition in 2008 was called Life is Beautiful, but his breakthrough did not come until 2010 when Banksy released the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which tells the story of Thierry Guetta.

Mr Brainwash’s style has been described as a combination between street and pop art. He gets his inspiration from pop artists including Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. He often combines older icons from popular culture, such as Marilyn Monroe, with more recent figures like Kate Moss, in the same work. He is also known for appropriating other artists’ works, like for example Jeff Koon’s balloons or Banksy’s Throwing Man, which can be spotted in Banksy’s iconic piece Love is in the Air. In his version Guetta has equipped the masked man with a copy of the book Art for Dummies.