Edmonton Banksy exhibition opens to public Friday, showcases original work

An exhibition displaying 60 pieces by the artist Banksy is now open in Edmonton's City Centre Mall. CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valdes-Carletti has the details.

Edmonton’s City Centre mall has a new exhibition opening Friday that features more than 60 original pieces from one of the most enigmatic graffiti artists in the world.

The Art of Banksy: “Without Limits” is the biggest exhibition in the world of anonymous street artist Banksy. It’s previously been in the U.S., South America, Asia and Australia.

It’s a production made possible by a private collector and is both the largest, the latest and the very last exhibit of its kind to come to Canada, according to its marketing and PR director Angela Di Corpo.

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“The exhibition is really a celebration of him and his art, and showing and teaching the public what everything means behind his artwork,” she said. “Everything has a meaning to him.”

There are more than 200 prints, photos, sculptures and videos to experience at the showcase, and anything not original, Di Corpo said, is a certified replica.

“I think we’re so lucky in Edmonton to get things like this that come through here,” Pamela Dobbin, who was doing a media/corporate-exclusive tour of the exhibit, said on Thursday.

Geraldine Odaibo, who was also touring the mall’s exhibition Thursday, said she didn’t realize the extent of Banksy’s activist work.

“I really like the anti-consumerism theme … I feel like we’re at a point of late-stage capitalism and things are starting to break down. So it’s cool that he expressed it in that way,” she said.

The exhibition will feature a couple ways to donate to local and international causes as well, with a Ukrainian display where guests can contribute and a t-shirt spray-painting station where proceeds go to the Edmonton Bissell Centre.

Banksy’s work stays in town until mid-January. Tickets start at $20.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti