Banksy vibes without the spray paint: Vinay Jalla’s ‘Modern Thinker’ takes over Manchester streets

You won’t find a stencilled rat or a shredded painting here. This isn’t Banksy. But if you’re walking through Manchester and glance up at the billboards on Whitworth Street or Trafford Road, you might still pause, smile… and then think.

That pause is exactly the point.

As part of the “Up Next” public art programme by JACK ARTS and Short Supply, Manchester-based artist and cartoonist Vinay Jalla has taken his work off the page and into the city. His billboard piece, The Modern Thinker, is deceptively simple. Yes, a single, continuous line forming a hunched figure glued to a phone.

At first glance, it’s familiar. Too familiar. Then it clicks. The posture echoes Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture The Thinker but instead of contemplating existence, this modern figure is lost in notifications, scrolling, and digital noise.

It’s funny. But it’s also quietly unsettling. 

Vinay Jalla, a long-time admirer of Banksy’s ability to blend humour with hard truths, approaches social commentary in his own way, not with spray paint, but with simple lines. No elaborate detail. No visual clutter. Just an idea, stripped back to its essence.

And that idea lands hard in a city that never really stops moving.

Because this isn’t just about screen addiction. It’s about awareness (or the lack of it). How many of us have crossed a road without looking up? Walked into someone? Missed something real while staring at something virtual?

The Modern Thinker gently nudges that question into public space, where it belongs.

There’s something powerful about seeing this kind of work outside a gallery. No ticket. No barrier. Just art, in the middle of everyday life, catching people mid-commute, mid-thought, mid-scroll.

It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t preach.

It just sits there quietly judging, gently teasing, and maybe, just maybe, making you lift your head for a second.

Not a Banksy. But in its own understated way, it’s doing something just as important. Making people stop, smile… and think.