On Saturday, I went to an exhibition at a pub called The Library. As I approached it, I was intrigued to see that it had giant inflatable tentacles waving out the windows, like this:

It was a grey, drizzly Saturday morning, so this cheered me up instantly. I was further intrigued when I got to the door and had to be checked off a guestlist by some pretty serious security, and was then eventually let in to the exhibition.

Inside, all of the pub furniture had been cleared, the walls were covered with canvases, and the floor space in between was filling up with Islingtelligentsia sipping wine and looking knowledgeable. However, I was distracted by these sculptures, just by the door:

The work is entitled ‘Pigeon English’, and is by FilthyLuker, the same artist responsible for the tentacles outside. Initially, I thought these were well-crafted models, but I spoke to Filthy later on, and he told me that he does indeed practice taxidermy on pigeons as well as putting inflatables in unlikely places.

The exhibition included really diverse mixture of works, including the stuff by Banksy and similar Bristol-based artists. More on the Banksy below, but here a few of the others that particularly caught my eye:

The last one is entitled ‘We are not amused’. Prices for these on canvas were around £500, and there were prints available as well. The collection had been brought together by Bristolian Paul Blower, who has just launched crazyfools.net as an online space for artists to exhibit, and was using The Library in a similar way to bring Bristol artists to greater recognition in the capital.

The real revelation of the exhibition was hidden away upstairs – the original of a never-before exhibited Bansky canvas entitled ‘Portrait of the Artist’:

Quite different from what we’ve come to expect, but fascinating to see something of his in a shiny gold frame, at least. Still polemical, but about art, not politics or consumerism. I think I will find it much harder to dismiss Banksy as a sensationalist or just an activist after seeing this. For me, it added a whole new dimension to his work. It wasn’t for sale, but there was a small sculpture called ‘The Watchtower’ which could be yours for £15, 000.

Paul, the owner, said he was really only displaying these items so as to draw in people to see the newer artists. I’m sure someone else would feel the need to make some statement about this signalling the start of the post-Banksy era in street art (or maybe they already have), but I just found it a really interesting, eclectic mixture of styles and pieces, and thought it a shame that it was only open for two afternoons. I know the pub had to go back to being a pub, and the tentacles couldn’t have stayed forever, but the whole idea of a “pop-up gallery” (as this apparently was) is a bit lost on me. Surely it automatically the number of people who can see the exhibition and dimishes any word of mouth effect in bringing people in? I know it was supposed to create a “buzz” and a sense of exclusivity, but when the contents is of such high calibre, I really don’t see the point of trying to create a false sense of expectation.

Impressionism for the digital age, using an iPhone and an application you can download for £2.99 ($4.99). The results have, predictably enough, been christened the ‘iSketch’.

Jorge Columbo, illustrator, photgrapher and graphic designer in New York, roams the city capturing its bustle and life on his iPhone.

The Brushes application he uses takes the culture of instant gratification a gadget like the iPhone provides that one step futher: now, not only can you capture an image as a photography, now you can capture it in a way that includes something of your own impressions as well.  Not only that, but the application also registers every finger-stoke you make, and enables you to upload it as a video, which means that the viewer of your sketch can also view the process that created it. You can see how the sketch above came to be here.

I quite like some of his earlier, non-New York efforts as well, like this one:

Have a look at some more of Jorge’s New York iSketches.

Read The Guardian’s take on this new phenomenon.

To see more art created with iPhones, have a look at this gallery.

Meet the armchair alien:

This image wasn’t created with photoshop. It’s called light graffit – artist Michael Bosanko sets up his camera on a very long exposure (over an hour, usually) and then creates the image by moving a torch around in the pattern he wants. You can get a better sense of the technique by watching this video:

Here, you can actually see him moving around with the torch. I also like this one, which is called ‘the green dragon’:

Although I like these, I think they’ve got greater potential as animations, rather than just static images. I’d quite like to see a short film about the green dragon. He could even have a sidekick…

To see more examples of light graffiti, go here.

I want one of these.

Don’t you think it’s beautiful?

This is a mirror made of wood:

It was created by New York-based Israeli artist Daniel Rozin, who uses an invisible matrix of cameras, motors and computers to allow non-reflective surfaces such as wood to display an image like a conventional mirror.

Here’s a video of his piece ‘Trash Mirror’ that demonstrates this better than I can really explain it:

The cameras detect movement, and dictate the position of the bits of rubbish, giving the impression that it is reflecting the image.

Imagine what it would look like if you had a whole room lined in this technology. I think I might enter it for next year’s Turner.