Born in France as Thierry Guetta, Mr. Brainwash is a documentary film maker living in Los Angeles. While working on his documetary about street art and artists, he changed from an observer to a participant and began making his own street art. This is where the mystery begins, as many voices claim that his artistry is not genuine and in fact Mr. Brainwash was created to dupe the art world and mock the art factory system.

His work emulates the styles and artistic concepts of other well-known street artists including Banksy and Shepard Fairey, both of whom supposedly collaborated with Guetta on his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.

In June of 2008, Mr. Brainwash held a solo art show titled Life is Beautiful at the former CBS Studios in Los Angeles, showing over three hundred paintings, sculptures and prints alongside an installation made from 100,000 shoes and a life-size re-creation of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

"MBW does not fit the stereotype of your average street vandal. His artistic process chiefly consists of throwing random modern cultural icons into a blender and turning it up to eleven. The results are by turns profound, provocative and inspirational." (OBEY online).

On Valentine's Day 2010, another solo show titled Icons opened in the New York City meat packing district to great public interest.

Sources include:
/obeygiant.com/headlines/mr-brainwash-life-is-beautiful-exhibition
nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/04/banksy_mr_brainwash.html
http://lookintomyowl.com/mr-brainwash-icons.html

Born in 1966 in France, Thierry Guetta, professionally known as Mr. Brainwash is a Los Angeles-based street artist. Guetta’s fascination with the clandestine lives of street artists was documented in the British documentary Exit Through the Giftshop which was directed by Banksy. The film sets Guetta, who at the time ran an upscale vintage clothing shop, within the milieu of street artists working in LA. The film follows and documents his meetings with many characters, including cousin Invader and fellow street-artist Shepard Fairey.

Following the movie, Banksy suggested to Guetta, given his fascination with street artist, that he himself should experiment with the medium - this promoted the birth of Mr. Brainwash. Since his first solo show in 2008, Mr. Brainwash has been experimenting with modern art. His delicate balancing act has been the deliberate convergence of pop art and street art. Mr. Brainwash's frequently used phrase "Life is Beautiful," inscribed on many of his works, has been used to emphasise the goodness and beauty of our existence, a prominent theme and subject for the artist.

Mr. Brainwash was born in 1966. Born Thierry Guetta, the French street artist and videographer Mr. Brainwash, or MBW, debuted in 2008, with the popular solo exhibition “Life is Beautiful”. The exhibition was located in Los Angeles, and extended for three additional months.

He became the main subject of the film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” in 2010, which was allegedly directed by the infamous British street artist Banksy. Working mainly with stenciled pop culture iconography, Mr. Brainwash has also created cover artwork for musicians like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He painted a commemorative 9/11 mural for Century 21 in New York.

Thierry Guetta, known as Mr. Brainwash, is a French-born street artist based in Los Angeles. He practices an irreverent brand of appropriation, re-appropriating popular images and juxtaposing them within his artwork. Critics have noted similarities between his style and that of Banksy, speculating that Guetta may be a creation of Banksy himself. Guetta has been quoted as saying, “Banksy captured me becoming an artist, in the end, I became his biggest work of art.”