When Mr Brainwash exploded onto the LA scene in 2008 with his debut show he created a sensation. Although at the time he was a complete unknown, before the week was out his sales had reached almost $1m, he was on the cover of LA Weekly and the original five day exhibition had been extended to run for three months. Life is Beautiful had transformed a cavernous disused TV studio into a street art spectacular which attracted over 50,000 visitors, making it the most visited private exhibition in history. Overnight, Mr Brainwash, AKA Thierry Guetta, an unknown French street artist, had become what Banksy described as “a phenomenon”. He was indeed unstoppable; in the last 10 years, this subversive and playful visionary has been placed on the elite list of the world’s top artists based on auction sales of nearly $2.5million and his meteoric rise has been the largest ever seen in the Art Market.

Innovative and fearless, the work of Mr Brainwash 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. Multi-layered, both literally and metaphorically, his work represents a huge melting pot of influences and ideas and is an orchestrated collision of street art and pop art that has challenged cultural norms and made him a legend. His witty and irreverent juxtapositions use his ‘tags’ – recurring characters ranging from Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein to ‘Balloon Girl’ and ‘the Positive Monkey’ – to create positivity, nostalgia and fun; “Art”, he says, “should never be serious.” The backdrops for these characters frequently reference his favourite musicians, film producers, comic book characters and famous artworks, paying homage to Warhol, Haring, Banksy, Basquiat and more Ape.

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.