Hanksy’s Pop Culture Mashup Art And Giant Inflatable Tom Hanks Rat Take Over Gallery 1988

Hanksy’s Meth Rogan

Our favorite pop culture mashup street artist Hanksy has been posting street art around Los Angeles to promote his first West coast art exhibition. The show, How The West Was Pun, opened at Gallery 1988 this weekend and runs until June 15th. Already we’re seeing quite a bit of development in his style since his first exhibition last year.

Hanksy, a law school dropout from the Midwest, revealed in an LA Weekly interview that he was arrested while putting up his Weird Al Yankovic mural to promote the show. (He returned the next day to finish it. Haters gonna hate.) Our favorite part of the interview was his answer to the question, “Does your art have a message?”

“You could say that it’s a response to street art being accepted by the general public or me subversing the subversive. But that’s bullshit. I just want people to have a chuckle and laugh about it. It’s not terribly thought provoking or somber or serious like a lot of street art is. It’s supposed to brighten someone’s day. My general message is don’t take yourself too seriously.”

An art show that isn’t steeped in pretentious descriptions and the smell of its own farts? That’s refreshing!

Also, how can we not love an art show with a giant inflated Tom Hanks rat in front of the building? The Surly Badger was at the opening and sent in this picture taken at the door.

Some of our favorite works from Hanksy’s How The West Was Pun are collected below, along with some of the street art posted around Los Angeles in the lead-up to the show. Pictures via Gallery 1988 and Laughing Squid, and prints for some of these are still for sale at the link under each photo.