I’d like to think that I’ve grown out of wetting myself in excitement, but Lewis Campbell’s beautiful and nihilistic Lost Monkey artwork caught me by surprise. Campbell’s ravens (cool, not scary), small little dead beings, whimsical girls, and fantastical creatures remind you of the worlds you dreamt about as a child.

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Street artists NF and Lover have been getting up quite a bit lately. Here’s a recent collaboration that was spotted in the Bronx illustrating the dangers of cell phone use.

Spanish artist Pepa Prieto weaves intricate and elusive narratives with her innocently psychedelic style — smiling creatures tangle into each other and matrixes of magical machines and bear-skin-clad people explore faraway lands, all playing their role in perpetuating the bustling civilization Prieto depicts in her pastel-colored paintings, installations, and murals.

Street artist Blu is back with a series of new videos highlighting his recent large scale wall art animations, including this one above: painted by Blu in Berlin during November 2008.

As part of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity organization whose mission it is to fight poverty in New York City, Lost At E Minor contributor and in-demand illustrator in her own right, Yuko Shimizu — in collaboration with designer Stefan Sagmeister — recently completed an eleven panel mural at PS96 in The Bronx.

We spoke to Yuko about the project, which took two and a half years to finish, and asked her how she got involved with it in the first place: ‘I had been admiring Stefan Sagmeister’s work and, even more so, his work philosophy, for a long time. So when he got hired to create a mural in a public school library, he thought it should be illustrated. I don’t know how he picked me, but he contacted me to work with him. How can I say no to my hero? Also, after working for a while in the field of art, most of us start thinking, “how can we give back using our skills?” This project gave me a good answer. Often times, a rewarding feeling comes more with charity work than with payment’.

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Though his colourful murals, installations, and drawings look playful and whimsical, at the heart of Fawad Khan’s work is a dark and complex political struggle with violence and identity that takes place through, on, and in, public vehicles. The New York-based artist was raised in Pakistan and speaks of being ridiculed when he was a child as he boarded a bus in Karachi for being born in Libya. The vehicles Khan renders and replicates are not only symbols of place and authority (the New York City cab and the US mail truck) and gathering places (public buses), but also have become weapons, as the constant news of car bombs reminds us every day.

My dear studio-mate Katie Yamasaki is the talk of town, a big town of New York City, right now with her recently completed anti-recruiting mural along the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn. She worked with young volunteer girls through the Groundswell Community Mural Project as part of Voices Her’d series. This is the fifth consecutive year Katie has been leading the mural project, utilizing public art as a tool to communicate issues confronting contemporary young women of colour.

My illustrator friend June Kim sent me over this link of a pop kid’s room mural by Ami Suma. I always had a prejudice against these, because I have only seen cheesy rendered skies and butterflies in the past. But, by the look of this one, children’s room murals can be stylish! I even want one for myself.

The home page of artist Maya Hayuk’s website is confronting. So many choices, each so nicely presented in their own little square. She’s so well accomplished and has packed solo, group exhibitions, and editorials into her career. She’s also done murals, shoes, photography and videos. Still hungry? She’s just released a book too. That surely is enough for you? C’mon, don’t be greedy.

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