A major collection of “museum quality” works by famed anonymous street artist Banksy has landed in Adelaide this week – or so the promotional material for ‘The Art of Banksy: Without Limits’ would have you believe.

Brought to Adelaide after a run in Brisbane as part of a tour across Europe, The Middle East, Asia and the United States, the exhibition showcases Banksy’s work from the early 2000s all the way through to work done during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and beyond.

His most famous works are present – ‘Girl and Balloon’, ‘Kissing Coppers’ and ‘Flower Thrower’ all make an appearance – but copies outnumber originals in this exhibit that charges $39 for weekday tickets and $41 on the weekend.

InDaily attended the VIP opening on Wednesday ahead of the exhibition’s official launch, and we spent more time staring at pixelated “signatures” than appreciating the sheer spectacle of the artist’s celebrated career on display.

According to the organisers, more than 1.5 million people have waltzed through the entrance of ‘Without Limits’ – the opening archway is a cardboard version of an airport security scanner that originally welcomed visitors to Banksy’s 2015 satirical theme park skewering Disney called ‘Dismaland’.

Visitors are then directed through room after room of Banksy pieces – some of which are paraphernalia from ‘Dismaland’ and some are genuine Banksy originals, but most are high-resolution prints in a frame and given an exhibit label onerously over-explaining the artist’s intention and come complete with typos.

Pure gold, the accompanying information plaque to a print of Banksy’s ‘Golf Sale’ (2003). Photo: InDaily.

Two (sic) many reasons to cringe. A page from The Art of Banksy Exhibition’s official art book. Photo: InDaily.

Other works on display are large sculptural works, and the temporary gallery walls are covered in graffiti emulating the esteemed artist’s guerrilla-style street art.

Banksy has never been particularly subtle – his commentary on consumer culture, religion, war, politics and geopolitics is obvious to even the most casual consumer of art – so the bland gift shop at the end of the “premium art experience” that charges $35 for a mass-produced trucker cap or $15 for a coffee mug is even more on the nose and seems to miss the entire point of the artist’s anti-consumer culture works.

Caps for purchase in The Art of Banksy Exhibition’s gift shop. Photo: InDaily.

Mugs for purchase in The Art of Banksy Exhibition’s gift shop. Photo: InDaily.

During our time with ‘Without Limits’, myself and a colleague remarked “Banksy would hate this”. It turns out he does. The artist does not endorse the travelling exhibition and has called it “fake” and “organised entirely without the artist’s knowledge or involvement”.

InDaily is also not the first publication to raise concerns about ‘Without Limits’; the ABC interviewed curator and private collector Kemal Gurkaynak during the exhibition’s Brisbane stop about the reproductions; Hypebeast reported that visitors in Seoul requested refunds due to the lack of ‘real’ Banksys; while The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also criticised the ratio of prints to originals.

It has been confirmed to InDaily that 35 of the 150-plus works on display are verified originals in Adelaide – “all authenticated by Pest Control, as well as several experiential areas, photos, lithographs, sculptures, murals, and video mapping installations created specifically for this tour” according to organisers.

It helps to draw a comparison to the recent ‘Andy Warhol and Photography: A Social Media’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

That trip down memory lane celebrated the pop art icon in a similar fashion to the Banksy exhibit, and drew upon Warhol’s career and details about his life. It set a high standard for retrospective, single-artist gallery experiences and revered the artist. ‘Without Limits’ meanwhile seems to ride on the coattails of a still-alive Banksy who reportedly wants nothing to do with the commercial endeavour.

The Art of Banksy Exhibition entry. Photo: supplied.

However, there are some moments of greatness at ‘Without Limits’.

Banksy’s oil paintings are a stunning example of what the anonymous artist is capable of. The few original works shine among the sea of replicas and sections of the gallery are nicely presented, especially the wing dedicated to the artist’s converted motor yacht called Louise Michel that has assisted in rescue operations of refugees in the Mediterranean.

Impressive too is the ‘Dismaland’ collection which chronicles the artist’s pop-up theme park and the ‘Kate Moss’ series of silkscreened paintings of the famous model in the style of Warhol’s Monroes.

As Gurkaynak told the ABC, “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”.

But perhaps a vacant retail space is the perfect staging for this late-capitalist mood board. If Banksy were wanting to make a point about how commodified his works have become, the state of bricks-and-mortar retail or the dilution of art into Instagrammable moments, he couldn’t do worse than presenting this exhibition on the first floor of Rundle Mall’s Myer Centre.