First shown at Banksy’s landmark Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles in September 2006, Grannies is one of the most playful yet sharply observant works from the series. The screenprint depicts two elderly women, seated comfortably in worn armchairs, knitting sweaters emblazoned with the slogans Punk’s Not Dead and Thug For Life. Against a flat pink background, the scene is both disarming and subversive Banksy turns cultural expectations on their head, inviting us to question whether these grannies are former rebels, quiet satirists or simply knitting their way through the contradictions of modern life.

Released in an edition of 600 unsigned prints and just 150 signed, Grannies has become one of the most memorable works from Barely Legal, which marked Banksy’s first major US exhibition. Its humour is immediate, but beneath the wit lies a more incisive commentary: how counterculture, once radical and defiant, can be softened and repackaged until it fits neatly into the most domestic of settings. In Grannies, rebellion is quietly sipping tea and knitting jumpers.