McGowan invented the Artist Taxi Driver persona when he was denied entrance to the Frieze Art Fair on 14 October 2010 , and for four consecutive nights ; Frieze was an annual event he had been to every year previously . American-born colleague of McGowan , Jasper Joffe , had had his paintings banned from the same event ; Joffe claimed he believed this was because he had debated with Frieze director Matthew Slotover at the Saatchi Gallery and during which debate Joffe had claimed that " the art world was becoming all about money . " The first video McGowan made in persona as The Artist Taxi Driver , he sat in his taxi outside Frieze 2010 , went into a diatribe against the commercialization and elitism of Frieze and the art world in general , and emotionally discussed his desire to leave it for good ; he also claimed he had started wearing sunglasses out of respect for the " Chilean miners . " In the same video he claimed that friends of his in the art world would be boycotting Frieze from then on . The Artist Taxi Driver has cited inspiration from George Carlin and Bill Hicks
Chilean miners
2010 Copiapó mining accident
Mark McGowan (performance artist)