Exit Through the Gift Shop

Street art is awesome. My interest really began five years ago when I saw a fantastic exhibit at the Orange County Museum of Art called Beautiful Losers. I was hooked.

Recently I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop, a new film about street art. Some cool artists were featured in the movie, including an identity hidden Banksy (it’s his movie), Shepard Fairey (of Obey and Obama fame), and Invader.

The movie also chronicles “filmmaker” Terry Gueta’s transformation into street “artist” Mr. Brainwash. It seems like Mr. Brainwash’s style is taking art that someone else made and adding a small detail to make it his “own,” or hiring other artists to create things based on a one sentence description from him. One of the problems with “his” method is that Mr. Brainwash is no Andy Warhol.

In addition to the fun of exploring the cool world of street art, the movie includes some funny commentary by Banksy that made me laugh out loud. And it was inspiring. It made me want to make stuff. Go see it.