Here're the first two artists I started looking at.

Artist Research

Banksy

When I first thought about political satire and finding out everything wrong with our society, the first person that came to mind straight away was Banksy.  Banksy is an English graffiti artist and political activist.  His Identity is questionable but his artwork is fantastic.  Banksy creates work that’s forces the viewer to think.  He combines dark humour with graffiti and he works in a stencil style that’s unique to him.  He’s not an average traditional artist in the sense that his work is usually never shown in an art gallery.  It’s not supposed to be there.  It’s not supposed to be in a small room boxed off from the rest of the world.  Instead, Banksy chooses really obvious, in your face type places to display his artworks, primarily on the sides of buildings but his spray paintings are enormous and take up the whole wall more often than not. 

For me, it’s important to look at his work for two reasons.  The first is because of the style.  His artworks include very blocky colours and deep contrasts.  There’s no blending involved.  These are aspects directly related to woodblock printing which is one of the media I intend to work with.  The second reason is because of the various messages he conveys through his images.  Through basic images and simple slogans, Banksy’s work conveys not just humour, but it also manages to address serious political issues indirectly.  In doing so, it allows the viewer to make their own assumptions and interpretations on what the work is all about.  This is exactly what I intend to do. 

Here are a few of his thought provoking as well as comical images.