We just got word of Banksy's newest work, a mural on the famed Bowery Houston Wall in Manhattan, this time a major political statement highlighting the imprisonment of Turkish artist, Zehra Dogan (more after the jump). Currently at the wall, if you go to the site itself or to the WALLTIME app, you can see Banksy's wall with a projection of Dogan's watercolor above. As Banksy wrote on his Instagram account today, "One year ago Zehra Dogan was jailed for painting this watercolour of a photograph she saw in the newspaper. Protest against this injustice by re-gramming her painting and tagging Turkey’s President Erdogan @rterdogan #FREEzehradogan ...". Press release below the jump! 

The renowned British artist Banksy today revealed a 70-foot protest mural in lower Manhattan. The artwork highlights the plight of Turkish artist, Zehra Dogan, who in March 2017 was sentenced by a court in Turkey to two years and nine months in prison for merely painting a picture.

The picture in question was copied from a newspaper photograph of the Kurdish town of Nasyabin, which was reduced to rubble following an attack by the Turkish Government’s armed forces. The original photograph was taken by Government forces after the attack and features Turkish flags draped over destroyed buildings.

Dogan painted the scene as a watercolour and posted her image to social media - for which she was then arrested and sentenced.

Banksy’s mural has been timed to coincide with the anniversary of Dogan’s first year in custody. It depicts Dogan behind bars, showing the final prison bar transforming into a pencil. Alongside the mural is a call for her release.

Located on the historic Bowery Wall made famous in the 1980’s by artist Keith Haring, the mural was painted in collaboration with ‘Borf’.

Jessica Goldman (CEO of Goldman Properties), who worked with Banksy on the installation, said, “We are proud that Banksy chose New York - and the Houston Bowery wall - to share this message. We stand alongside every artist who chooses to use his or her creative abilities to highlight human rights issues.”

Dogan, who still has 18 months of her sentence left to serve, has yet to hear about the mural. She receives only periodic visits to the cell she shares with 40 other inmates, many of them journalists and victims of the Turkish Government’s clampdown on the media. 

To view the projection LIVE, download the WALLTIME app and click on Bowery Wall

The Houston Bowery wall, which was made famous in the 1970’s by the late Keith Haring, is currently owned and curated by Goldman Properties. Due to the importance of the wall to the community and the art world, Goldman Properties felt a sense of responsibility to bring art to the public on a grand scale, and continues to do so through this piece of real estate. With each rebirth, the wall's program broadens further to include established and emerging street artists from the United States and around the world who have a powerful message of hope, possibility and inspiration.