The anonymous British street artist Banksy has confirmed that he is the creator of seven new murals in Ukraine.
The murals were discovered a few days prior to Banksy sharing some of his work on his Instagram account. He had previously not shared any information about his location or whereabouts in war-torn Ukraine.
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When a series of murals suspected to be his appeared in the liberated Ukrainian city, which is located about 35 miles northwest of Kyiv, there was little doubt as to their origins, with Banksy’s distinctive style easily recognized. Just two days ago, the artist himself confirmed the news to The Art Newspaper. And now other works have been located in the capital and other cities in the region.
The first mural to be identified, which went viral over the weekend, depicts a female gymnast balancing on a pile of rubble on the side of a building damaged by Russian strikes. Another artwork shows a little boy, wearing a martial arts uniform tied with a black belt, flipping a grown man onto his back. Some have connected the image to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose honorary black belt was revoked earlier this year by World Taekwondo, though Banksy has not publicly commented on the image or its meaning. Other murals showed two children using a metal tank trap as a seesaw, and a woman in hair curlers and a gas mask holding a fire extinguisher.
The series is the first set of Banksy artworks to pop up since last summer’s “Great British Spraycation,” which saw the enigmatic artist leave behind his signature pop art commentary at sites across a number of British coastal towns.
