Bambi herself has been known to partake in this constant cycle of street art mutation – you can spot one of her 12 Rude Pope stencils at the bottom of the pic we snapped recently in Clipstone St, defacing a Perspex’ed up Banksy original, no less. Another of the papal series appeared on the wall of the Greek Church in Kentish Town, an endeavour for which the artist may have spent a night in the cells, if you believe the mystery-shrouded blurb put out by Walton Fine Arts, the Knightsbridge gallery that are also her exclusive agents.
Yet she made more local friends than enemies with her cleverly chosen tribute to the retiring June Beachey, manager of Regent’s Park Road landmark Welsh’s hardware for 52 years, Make Tea Not War, to be found on walls in both Primrose Hill and Belsize Park.
Hitting the posher parts of town makes strong business sense too. Her celeb-focussed portraits are proving a big hit with… celebs. Versions of her royal wedding celebration of Wills and Kate, one of the Queen, plus a Camden Town Amy were reported to have been picked up by Brad Pitt for £60k. Robbie Williams snaffled one for his baby daughter at £30k, with Mark Owen, Adele, Rihanna and also David Dimbleby (via his charity art auction) linked with her works in increasingly excitable press reports.
Yet the biggest media fuss to date took place last week, when The Sun hinted at the identity of Bambi, revealing some clues including that she is also a hugely successful and well known singer. The social media consensus was in favour of Paloma Faith, but there were plenty of amusing others suggested including various former Spice Girls (all a red herring for sure). Bambi’s rise comes in very much a post-Banksy era. Everything from the much touted comparisons to the edgy air of mystery is being carefully managed – working the savvy street art potential for all it can give.
Not that there’s anything inherently wrong or inauthentic in this: it’s what a relatively new a kind of antisocial/respectably highbrow/mass market art needs to whisk it from the streets onto the walls of Hollywood mansions. A frenzied charge towards Banksy 2.0, if you will. And Bambi is jostling right at the front of the stampede.
We’ll leave it to you to decide what to make of this latest flurry of guerrilla art cropping up on a wall near you soon. Will this local Bambi find herself caught in the headlights and be unmasked or arrested first? Whatever happens, it’ll only be another rite of passage on her career path.
Words: Tom Kihl
5 thoughts on “Wednesday Picture: Tracking Bambi Street Artist”
A terrible blight on Islington, ‘A bit like marmite’ oh well done…very thought provoking!
Great article, but just so everybody knows Walton Fine Arts appear NOT to be her exclusive agents. I checked it out and found two other galleries, Globe Gallery and Taylor Gallery, who work with her… they’ve got great signed Amy prints and other works like Make Tea Not War. Worth a visit!
Dear Jean Mumford
Just to clear things up WaltonFine Arts are Bambi’s exclusive global agents, on all her original art by contract and on marketing her works. This exclusivity does not include Bambi’s prints, which she distributes through various channels, two of which you have just mentioned. If there is any confusion we will be happy to take this up with our legal department. Thank you so much.
I love how Bambi’s art is both somehow modern and relevant, yet also timeless and profound. I expect big things from her!
Just thought I’d make this clear – Bambi, whoever she is, has already been arrested once and thrown in a cell overnight. She revealed this in an interview last year.