Cunha, Miguel Pina eClegg, Stewart R.Berti, MarcoRego, ArménioSimpson, Ace2025-09-302025-09-302021-01-202168-8575PURE: 130683246PURE UUID: 6c5eabdf-5f82-4c8b-84cf-e27b2824f15dORCID: /0000-0002-0519-8824/work/191738081http://hdl.handle.net/10362/188823Management and organization studies has recently expressed heightened interest in the concept of paradox. Paradox, etymologically para-doxa, is that which challenges the norm. Frequently representative cases drawn from the terrain of the arts and of artistic work have provided a context for exploring going against the norm, usually under the label of the avant-garde. In this article we explore the case of one artist, Banksy, whose art per se is not necessarily avant-garde but who, through systematic use of paradox, composes a persona that embodies and thrives on paradoxical meanings, aiming not at finding some form of balance but at performatively expressing an avant-garde disruption of art world norms. The case of Banksy can be transposed to organizational analysis with the intention of illuminating how paradox may be embraced by avant-garde organizational scholarship that thrives on anti-normative moves.290781undjournal article