Los Angeles  Brainwash Captain America

In this large work pasted onto the exterior wall of his studio, Mr. Brainwash used layers of Marvel comic imagery, most notably, fragments from Captain America #119 (1969), titled Now Falls the Skull! (a story set in Berchtesgaden, Germany) with cover art by Gene Colan (pencils) and Joe Sinnott (inks). By removing rather than adding material, he created a décollage, a technique that relies on the tearing away or destruction of existing layers. This method embraces chance, erosion, and texture, highlighting the aesthetic of decay and impermanence. 

A provocative figure in street art, Mr. Brainwash (a pseudonym for Thierry Guetta, a French-born Los Angeles based street artist ) recontextualizes imagery from popular culture and art history, incorporating it into his wry screen prints and sculptures. His use of text and iconography reflects a graffiti inspired sensibility that often undermines or parodies the original source material. Mr. Brainwash rose to prominence as the central figure in Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010), the Banksy directed film that many interpret as a critique of the commodification of street art—with Mr. Brainwash himself as the punchline. In this reading, he becomes the personification of derivative, market driven art. His visual language borrows heavily from Andy Warhol’s pop art (e.g., celebrity portraits, repetition, vivid color schemes, ...), Banksy’s stencil-based subversion, and other well established street art tropes. His work often feels like a pastiche or remix of established styles, with little formal innovation and without giving due credit to the artists whose works he sourced. Whether it’s empty imitation or clever commentary depends on how charitably one reads his practice and how much weight one gives to authenticity versus spectacle in contemporary art. While his work is visually accessible and commercially successful, critics argue that it lacks the critical edge, social commentary, or artistic risk-taking associated with more respected figures in the street art scene. Many feel his practice reduces rebellious street aesthetics to easily digestible, decor-friendly images and slogans.