Grupa The Krasnals

The Krasnals is an anonymous, controversial artistic group founded in 2008 - one of the most recognisable formations of Polish contemporary art after 2000. Its members remain anonymous, operating under characteristic pseudonyms: Whielki Krasnal (the founder and main painter, associated with the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts), Krasnal Banksy (field actions, graffiti, photography) and Krasnal Hałabała I and II (marketing, the blog, texts, exhibitions); hired painters who do not know the group's identity also take part in the realisations. They operate mainly through a blog and Facebook, and their work - based on irony, provocation and grotesque - is a sharp commentary on the art market, politics and society, close to the street art of Banksy and the British Stuckists.

The group exposes the mechanisms of stardom, marketing and market trends, claiming that the art market is shaped by a narrow group of decision-makers; their symbolic point of reference is Wilhelm Sasnal. The Krasnals became famous for their notorious provocations - the painting „Monkeys with White Bananas” valued by the Christie's auction house at 70,000 pounds, a portrait used by Piotr Uklański in an installation at the exhibition „Pop Life” at Tate Modern (2009) and the „Art Police Gazette” published during the 54th Venice Biennale. They also regularly organise charity auctions for children.