Mr. Brainwash

I happened to see an episode of "A Day in the Life" by Morgan Spurlock on Hulu a couple days ago. The person featured was an LA based artist, Thierry Guetta, who is known as Mr. Brainwash. He is known as a street artist but has also had gallery shows. I Googled him and apparently there is a controversy about whether he is a genuine artist or some kind of real-life caricature created by the controversial street artists Banksy and Shepard Fairey. There are dozens of articles about the controversy and I have found it pretty interesting. Here is an excerpt from the L.A. Times about the supposed artist:

The details of Guetta's unlikely biography are broadly supported by a review of public records, which trace his life in Los Angeles from his arrival as a teenager in the early 1980s. They are also consistent with the accounts of friends, former business associates and employees over those years.

Of course, it is impossible to prove whether his latest incarnation, Mr. Brainwash, is sincere. The film suggests that Guetta's artistic alter ego is largely a creation of Banksy, a notion Guetta doesn't refute.

"Banksy captured me becoming an artist," the paint-splattered Guetta said, surrounded by the stacks of art books and pop-culture clutter from which his work is derived — or ripped off, depending on your view. "In the end, I became his biggest work of art."

Whether he is a real guy or a guy portraying a character as part of another artist's agenda I think that the work attributed to him is pretty fascinating and fun.