Mr Brainwash

Artist Overview Artworks Events & Exhibitions Artist Video Gallery Biography

Artist Overview Artworks Events & Exhibitions Artist Video Gallery Biography

Mr Brainwash's art is a vibrant celebration of positivity and the transformative force of love. By fusing elements of pop art, street art, and classical paintings, each unique Mr Brainwash print or original artwork becomes a striking addition to any contemporary art collection.

He often juxtaposes cultural and contemporary icons and is influenced by pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.

Using and reusing popular imagery and themes borrowed from other famous artists, such as Jeff Koon’s steel balloon animals and Banksy’s ‘Throwing Man’, Mr Brainwash aligns his artistic intentions with those of the original pop artists, producing art for everybody that can be experienced anywhere.

With his playful and subversive approach, Mr Brainwash has earned a prominent position among the top living artists, he has designed album covers for Madonna’s Celebration, Rick Ross’s Mastermind and Rather You Than Me, The Red Hot Chili Peppers I’m With You, and Michael Jackson’s Xscape. Further collaborations included Hublot, Mercedes-Benz, The Hard Rock Hotel, and most recently, Bentley; his celebrity connections and collectors include the Obamas, the Beckhams and the Kardashians. Summer 2024 saw the publication of a lavishly illustrated hardback retrospective book which charts his astonishing rise to fame through anecdotes, photographs and a dazzling array of artwork.

"Mr Brainwash is a force of nature..." (Banksy)

Drawing inspiration from art history and the works of great masters, combined with the boundless energy of the street, Mr Brainwash creates uplifting works of art that celebrate culture, creativity and colour.

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Mr Brainwash Biography

Mr Brainwash (real name Thierry Guetta) is a French street and pop artist who rose to fame through his collaboration with Banksy in the 2010 Academy-nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. He was both featured in and responsible for the filming of the project.
The artist’s debut exhibition Life is Beautiful (2008) had sales of five figures for single works and received praise from British street artist Banksy.

The following year, Madonna commissioned Mr Brainwash to design the cover for her album Celebration. His major auction debut occurred at Philips in 2010 where Charlie Chaplin Pink sold for $122,500, from an upper estimate of $70,000. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Mr Brainwash is changing the face of street art as it is represented in UK galleries with his unique brand of positivity and his bold artworks built around such messages of hope as ‘Life is beautiful’, ‘never give up’ or follow your dreams’. Innovative and fearless, his work embraces a riot of themes and styles, statements and jokes, commentary and chaos; combining elements from pop art’s past, from classical paintings and from the raw components of his street art beginnings, he creates larger-than-life celebrations of culture, imagination and sheer audacity.

His raw visual take on popular culture and mass consumption has won Mr Brainwash legions of fans, leading to international exhibitions, high profile celebrity collaborations and a recurring residency at Art Basel. Although he loves to put on a show in his now home city of LA, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, Seoul, New York and many other cities have also welcomed him as a breath – or perhaps a hurricane – of fresh air.

He has come full circle from his first ever solo show in LA in 2008; December 2022 saw the opening of the long-awaited Mr Brainwash Art Museum in Beverly Hills, hosting a one-of-a-kind exhibition exploring his evolution.

While his imaginative and often outrageous construction of gallery exhibitions and art shows has continued to attract attention and adulation, there is a more serious side to Mr Brainwash. While undertaking solo exhibitions and his residency at Art Basel each year he creates every possible opportunity to engage the public in the world of art and convince them that ‘Life is beautiful’.

He gives seminars at American universities and international conferences and is always keen to give something back to the community and the streets that made him. His fundraising activities are wide ranging; as well as supporting organisations such as the Prince’s Trust for the benefit of vulnerable youth, he supports the LA LGBT Center and has partnered with Product RED to raise AIDS awareness. His artwork has given him a platform and allowed him to form some amazing connections, including with former First Lady Michelle Obama in support of her organization Let Girls Learn and with Pope Francis to raise funds for the latter’s youth foundation, Scholas.

“My aim is to reveal the unexpected.”
THE STREET IS OPEN TO EVERYONE, IT’S THE BIGGEST GALLERY WE CAN GET” (Mr Brainwash), quoted by Tabish Khan in the Londonist, 2018