Mr Brainwash ICONS Show opens in New York in articles from the artzine on artrepublic.com

The show features portraits of unmistakable cultural figures from various disciplines, including musicians, fashion designers and artists. Icons opened to the public on Sunday, February 14, 2010.

Mr Brainwash is also the subject of Banksy’s brand new documentary, ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival 2010. For more than eight years, Mr Brainwash travelled throughout the United States and Europe with some of the world’s most infamous street artists, documenting the most significant counterculture movement of a generation. However, after meeting Banksy, the British stencil artist turned the tables on the only man who ever filmed him, creating a remarkable documentary that is part personal journey and part an exposé of the art world with its mind-altering mix of hot air and hype.

Mr Brainwash’s work has garnered mainstream acclaim, and in 2009, Madonna enlisted him to design the cover of her greatest hits album, Celebration, as well as 15 different covers for the accompanying vinyls, singles and DVDs. A studio visit with Mr Brainwash also aired on Last Call With Carson Daly in April 2009.

Mr Brainwash is the moniker of Los Angeles-based filmmaker and Pop street artist Thierry Guetta. Mr Brainwash has spent the better part of the last decade attempting to make the ultimate street art documentary. Meanwhile, inspired by his subjects, he has emerged as a prolific figure on the international art scene with his highly visible, pop-art inspired murals of celebrities. 

In June 2008, Mr Brainwash debuted one of Los Angeles’s hottest exhibitions, Life is Beautiful - a massively successful survey of the French-born transplant’s work, held at the old CBS Studios Building on Sunset Boulevard. In addition to his widely recognized, Life is Beautiful featured such larger than life installations as a 20-foot robot constructed of old televisions, a life size recreation of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and a pyramid made from 20,000 books. His piece Campbell’s Tomato Spray, a take on Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup’s Can, was featured on the cover of LA Weekly.