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Street Artist Exposes Spy Chiefs on City Walls

"Italian Banksy" Paolo Cirio has his eyes on the big guys... in a city near you.
Michael Hayden in NYC. Images courtesy the artist

In his latest controversial street art campaign, Overexposed, Italian artist Paolo Cirio searches for images of the highest ranking U.S intelligence officials, adapts and modifies the images with HD stencils, spray paints them on paper, canvas, and photo paper, and then pastes their images onto the streets of major cities around the world.

Overexposed debuted May 22 at NOME gallery in Berlin and, according to Motherboard, takes the form of what Cirio calls a "public intervention." Cirio, who told The Creators Project that his interests are in surveillance and privacy—or lack thereof—came to the project through “Snowden’s revelations and my learning about the astonishing programs of mass surveillance that are now in place.” Lucky for Cirio, he's yet to receive a reaction from any government officials, adding that, “The government wouldn’t respond to satire like this! They are after acts of sabotage, and I’d be way more careful if I was doing that.”

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Keep an eye out for Cirio, who is set to have a couple new projects debut by the end of the year. For now though, you can catch a glimpse of Overexposed in cities around the world, including New York, Berlin, Paris, and London, in the images below:

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Keith Alexander in Berlin

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James Comey

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John Brennan

For more, visit Paolo Cirio's website and follow him on Twitter.

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