On the opening night of the Wollongong Art Gallery’s newest exhibition, Heuristic, crowds gathered around its major drawcard: Banksy’s famous Girl With The Red Balloon.
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“His work is really like the Mona Lisa of the street art world,” curator Simon Grant – of Wollongong’s Wonderwalls fame – said of the famously elusive street artist.
“People were standing there taking photos with it, and I was like ‘man, this is like the Louvre’.”
A first edition worth about $70,000, the Banksy and some of the other impressive works in the show are being borrowed from the private collection of a man who won’t be identified, but was part of the London street art scene in the early 2000s.
“These are works that haven’t really been seen very often in Australia, from the deep dark depths of the philanthropic around Australia,” Mr Grant said.
“The amount of effort that went into getting it there was such an operation, it was like moving an elephant from Taronga Zoo to our own animal park.”
Despite this prestige and fuss, the Wollongong curator hopes visitors to Heuristic – on now until October 8 – will see past the famous names and use the exhibit as a chance to explore other aspects of street art.
“Having Banksy in the show is really great, but it’s really just a bit of a hook so people will come in and discover other things,” Mr Grant said.
“It’s the unobtainable and obtainable – Banksy alongside virtual reality where you can actually create something yourself.”
Part of the exhibition involves a virtual reality game, Kingspray, where attendees can create their own piece of virtual street art.
“You basically put on the headset and use the controllers and you’ve got a spray can in your hand,” Mr Grant said.
“You’re on a rooftop in downtown Manhattan and you can paint onto a wall. It’s like doing the real thing.”
Other artists in the exhibit include Scott Marsh (made famous with his work Kanye kissing Kanye), Anthony Lister, Gary, Aeon/Tom Gerrard, Steve Cross, Muchos, Scott Marsh and Rone.