Latest Banksy Is A Cat In London

The artist says his whimsical animal images are meant to help lower the national temperature after a week of riots and incrimination following the stabbing deaths of three young girls.

UK street artist Banksy has been busy lately, with a new piece of graffiti popping up in London every day for the past six days.

All six new images are animals and the latest is a cat. Sprayed on a billboard in northwest London, the Banksy feline is a black silhouette of a stretching cat and was found this morning.

On Friday, the anonymous artist added a pair of pelicans to a fish shop sign, making it look like the pelicans were eating the fish. That follows a trio of monkeys who appear to be swinging across a bridge, a pair of elephants, a mountain goat, and a howling wolf in the center of a satellite dish, creating the impression that the dish is the moon silhouetting the wolf.

Banksy pelicans
The whimsical animal renderings often show their subjects appearing to interact with their urban environment.

Banksy’s art commands high prices at auction: one piece sold for $25 million, while many others have fetched winning bids well into seven and eight figures.

The wolf piece lasted only hours before a group of men came along and took it. A representative for the artist confirmed to the BBC that the artwork was stolen.

Likewise, the feline was gone by afternoon, removed by contractors who said they were trying to safeguard it.

This isn’t Banksy’s first cat. In 2015 the anonymous artist snuck into the Gaza strip via a tunnel from Egypt and painted a kitten on a fragment of concrete wall that was rubble left over from an Israeli strike. Banksy has also been responsible for at least three other feline-themed pieces of street art, and possibly more.

Banksy Gaza kitten
Banksy’s kitten graffiti in the Gaza strip.

The UK artist is known for using his art to highlight causes, and has made reference to various conflicts around the world, unregulated capitalism, destruction of the environment and distrust of authority, with many of his pieces taking aim at the UK surveillance state. As The Londonist wrote, London is considered one of the most surveilled cities in the world, with between 627,000 and 942,000 CCTV cameras monitoring the public.

However, Banksy’s latest series eschews a political message, his reps told UK media. After a tumultuous week that saw rioting across the country in response to the stabbing deaths of three young girls — and inaccurate news reports about the identity of the attacker — Banksy, his publicist said, merely wants his countrymen to “cheer up.”

10 thoughts on “Latest Banksy Is A Cat In London”

    1. I can’t find anything about whether it still exists, or any of the others in Gaza for that matter. His explanation for the kitten was funny. He said he wanted to draw attention to the conflict, but people on the internet only look at pictures of cute kittens, so…

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      1. Sadly, i cannot see that kitten and not think about the slaughtered children in Gaza. Not to mention the pets that were killed. I saw a news report months ago and saw this dog running from the bombs. That image is embedded in my head.

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  2. Thanks for this cheerful article! The art is surprisingly well done, no wonder people are paying lots for genuine Banksy’s. But how do thieves steal the art? A sign is easy to remove but that big kitten on the concrete slab would require some heavy equipment.

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    1. From what I understand, he creates the designs first with a particular public spot in mind, then makes stencils out of his design, then under the cover of night quickly spray paints the stencil, plus whatever details he’d envisioned while his team keeps a lookout. That allows them to get in and out without getting caught.

      I remember reading an article about someone literally having an entire wall removed and preserved because it had a Banksy on it. I’m not sure how common that is, but stuff like the wolf on the satellite dish tends to disappear quickly.

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      1. Full disclosure. Did not know who or what a Banksy is. I had to google it. We have someone like that in my area of Brooklyn but only on pieces of wood about to be thrown out. We smile when we see different smiley faces on the wood.

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  3. Thank you for sharing, Big Buddy, I hope the new art does bring people together. I follow people on Quora because it brings cheer to my day to read about and see their cats (you and Buddy are included!).

    I have a picture on my refrigerator that I printed out of Renate D. Kuhn’s cat, Sissy. In the picture Sissy is lying on her back in a planter on the balcony of Renate’s high-rise apartment in Berlin. The beautiful blue sky is in the background and I always imagine Sissy is relaxing and contemplating the universe. Renate hasn’t posted on Quora in years and I hope she and Sissy are well and happy. The lovely picture she posted of Sissy will always be a beacon to me reminding me to relax, that even though it doesn’t feel like it, there is time to contemplate and enjoy life.
    Maybe Banksy’s new art will offer the same to someone else.
    A very Happy Caturday to you and to Buddy.

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    1. I hope so after the insane week they’ve had in the UK, and I hope the cat was really taken by people who wanted to protect it rather than sell it.

      One of his artworks lasted just an hour before some guys came along and stole it.

      Happy Caturday to you and your house tigers as well!

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