Incredible street art animation! You’ve got to watch ‘Muto’ an “ambiguous animation painted on public walls” by Blu. Then go and watch all his other video animations. If you like his style, you can always go and pick up some signed Blu prints at Pictures On Walls

See more work by Blu.

Do you remember 80’s pop legends, Thompson Twins? I’m not quite old enough to have a good memory of the 80’s music scene, but I do know that the Thompson Twins were a big part of it. So what has happened to the band members since then? Well, If you’re Alannah Currie, one third of the synth-heavy pop group, you become an “armchair destructivist”. Part artist, part upholsterer, Currie combines upholstery and taxidermy under the moniker Miss Pokeno to create surreal furniture artworks. Who would’ve thought that a red velvet armchair combined with two entwined foxes (Currie is a vegetarian and the animals in her work are either roadkill or died naturally) would produce such a beautiful but disturbing place to sit and read the newspaper?

See A Collection of Chairs to honor the Godless by Miss Pokeno from the 8 May 2008 - 8 June 2008 at The Ragged School, 47 Union Street London, SE1 1SG

Art is dirty. I’ve seen a few clever ideas that use the removal of dirt and grime to create something new, but I particularly like Simon Heijdens’ ‘Clean Carpets’ project. Through the use of a high-pressure sprayer and a template, grime is removed from the pavement in the shape of a carpet. The clean spot appears, a place where one would want to sit. The image is made by taking away instead of adding. The carpet slowly disappears over time as the streets gathers fresh grime.

See more work at simonheijdens.com

Chair Cushions! Designer Julie Wilkinson has come up with a creative way of advertising and inviting people to an exhibition she has been helping to organise in partnership with Joyanne Horscroft entitled LEGS; an event where 25 students have been asked to design a chair of some kind. Julie has created a set of miniature cushions which display the details of the event, which will then to be scattered around the city of Bath on benches, chairs and in bars. Legs: Creative Chair Design exhibition opens on 8pm Wednesday 30th January at Invention Studios Bath.

More details of the event, including photos, will be available at graphicdesignonallfours.co.uk following the exhibition on Wednesday

Conor Harrington Exhibition Dates: Fri 25th of January - Sat 23rd of February Opening on 25th January 2008 at Lazarides Gallery will be new works by Conor Harrington. The show will feature paintings made from oil and aerosol paint alongside a series of new charcoal drawings. Weekend Warriors explores the world of historical re-enactment, where men dress up at the weekends as warriors, generals and emperors to live out their escapist fantasies as heroes and supermen.

See more work by Conor Harrington.

A whole new world of mutated chairs. I missed the Martino Gamper exhibition of his 100 Chairs in 100 Days project which was shown in London last year, but there is now a book available titled 100 Chairs in 100 Days and its 100 Ways. It highlights the bastardised chair forms which have been created by Gamper using the odds and ends of other chairs, and other various objects.

See more work by Martino Gamper.

A modern graphic reworking of Klimt’s work. London based graphic designer, Angus Alexander, has created a beautiful screenprinted re-working of the Gustav Klimt sketch ‘The Blood of Fish’. Alexander’s re-working entitled ‘Flood of Nuda’ is a 2 colour screen print available in a limited edition of 250, and is available via his website.

See more work by Angus Alexander.

Cars, tax & Art. The Art Car Boot Fair have developed a range of car tax disc holders created by leading artists and designers. The Pretty Taxing tax disc holder and certificate is both a collectible and a usable artwork. With the limited edition pieces both the circular tax disc artwork and the certificate are hand numbered with the edition number.

Pretty Taxing will launch new editions of tax disc holders by leading artists and designers on a regular basis so customers can build their own in-car art collection, and promise to occasionally produce other special signed and editioned pieces.

Available from the Art Car Boot Fair Shop.

Santa’s Ghetto goes to Bethlehem. This event will probably get picked up by the press as simply another story about the artist Banksy painting on Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier again, but Santa’s Ghetto has been going for a few year now. I’ll let them explain it:

Santa’s Ghetto is probably the world’s most low-concept art event.

Every year we assemble a loose collection of the great unwashed to hawk their artistic wares on the high street amongst the mindless sham and drudgery of the christmas season. This year we’ve moved out of Oxford Street into a former chicken shop on Manger Square in Bethlehem opposite the Church of the Nativity (where Santa Claus was actually born).

This puts us one mile behind the security wall in a part of the world ravaged by conflict, poverty and dust. Just the place, you’d think, that’s desperate to check out the latest five-colour deckled edge screen prints coming out of East London.

You can watch the whole sorry thing unravel on-line but you’re particularly welcome to come out and visit in person (you’re probably far less likely to get randomly stabbed on the way home than you were last year).

Basically, the cream of the urban/street art genre such as Sam 3, Paul Insect and, of course, Banksy have moved the annual Santa’s Ghetto event to Bethlehem in order to draw attention to the issues going on over there with the Jewish/Arab conflict. And what better way to do it than a painting of a soldier feeding a donkey?

Find out more at Santa’s Ghetto.

If Banksy breaks the bank, read on. To any long term readers of the blog, they’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’m a big fan of street art, especially artists like Invader. But I’d thought I’d highlight one of my favorite lesser known artists among the slew of urban/street/graffiti artists that are starting to make big names from themselves in the art world. He’s possibly already known amongst the New Yorkers reading, or at least they’ve probably passed his work on the street at some point, but New York artist Bast doesn’t currently seem to get the same credit as some of his contemporaries working in a similar field.

With Banksy pieces being bought by the likes of Brad Bitt, and established mega-star artists like Damien Hirst buying up the entire show by Paul Insect before the show even opened, the urban/street art genre is now commanding high prices and establishing ground as a credible artistic movement. So I thought I’d tell you guys about Bast, as you can still pick up fantastic screenprints by the artist from Pictures On Walls for as little as £20. But, be quick about it - Bast, is an early pioneer of the movement, and in my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before he’s given the same respect he deserves, and his work gets out of your price-league.

See more work by Bast.