Alec Monopoly
Martini Monopoly, 2013
Anonymous American graffiti artist Alec Monopoly is most often compared to the British Banksy. …
Street artist Alec Monopoly takes his name from the transaction-based board game in which players buy and sell property, accumulate money, and try to make their opponents go broke. The artist employs the character of Rich Uncle Pennybags, the game's suited mascot, to deliver his critique of capitalist greed. In Monopoly's tableaux, done on city surfaces or on newsprint and framed, the mustachioed character sprints with a moneybag under one arm, laments the lack of universal health care, and gets beaten by a policeman with a bully club. Monopoly uses a cartoonish style to comment on real-world problems, delivering a simplified and exaggerated message nonetheless justified in its decrial of a broken economic system. The first real figure Monopoly painted was Bernie Madoff, whom he considers the ultimate symbol of financial collapse. He also uses cartoon characters Scrooge McDuck and Richie Rich in his work.
Anonymous American graffiti artist Alec Monopoly is most often compared to the British Banksy. Irreverent in style and panache the two iconic street artists certainly remain preoccupied with money—those who have it and those who don’t—and ultimately its effect on society at large. Using the familiar fictional …
Street artist Alec Monopoly takes his name from the transaction-based board game in which players buy and sell property, accumulate money, and try to make their opponents go broke. The artist employs the character of Rich Uncle Pennybags, the game's suited mascot, to deliver his critique of capitalist greed. In Monopoly's tableaux, done on city surfaces or on newsprint and framed, the mustachioed character sprints with a moneybag under one arm, laments the lack of universal health care, and gets beaten by a policeman with a bully club. Monopoly uses a cartoonish style to comment on real-world problems, delivering a simplified and exaggerated message nonetheless justified in its decrial of a broken economic system. The first real figure Monopoly painted was Bernie Madoff, whom he considers the ultimate symbol of financial collapse. He also uses cartoon characters Scrooge McDuck and Richie Rich in his work.
