“Rust Mirror” (2010) by Daniel Rozin from bitforms gallery nyc on Vimeo.

Britain’s best ever graphic designer, as described by the Observer is to be showcased at the CUBE Gallery in Manchester.

Alan Fletcher: Fifty years of graphic work (and play) Opened Today by Peter Saville, who worked with Fletcher at the legendary design company, Pentagram.

Richard Wright has won this years Turner Prize. The creator of a subtle and unashamedly beautiful fresco in gold leaf has been named the winner of this year’s most prestigious UK art prize. Glasgow-based Richard Wright, 49, used the age-old, painstaking techniques of the old masters to make his glistening wall painting for the Turner prize exhibition at Tate Britain in London. And yet when the show closes on 3 January 2010, it will simply be painted over in white emulsion and lost forever. (Silk or Matt?)

It has been a year since The Wall came down in the PR1 Gallery (Archives Nov 08). In the
intervening period it has been re configured and has transformed into a terraced garden.

Terrace is on permanent display opposite bridge eleven, Shelley Road, Ashton, Preston

As yet there are  no plans to move the piece…… not in my lifetime anyhow.

France’s Royal de Luxe theatre company, responsible for events such as the Sultan’s Elephant produce another staggering array of puppets. see more at The Big Picture.

Claire Norcross’s Jerwood entry Bloom 296 has recently returned to the North West and is currently on show at Ferrious – Arch 61, Whitworth St West, Manchester. If you get chance check it out.

Photography by Tim Ainsworth

After first moving into the Ancoats area of Manchester a few years ago, I was stumbling home from the pub one evening when I noticed a very dim light emitting from a tiny brass nut attached to the wall of an old mill. Upon closer inspection I could see it was a small viewing hole, and through it I could see a large, well lit room. This one here…

Slightly bemused, I was none the less compelled to discover more. It turned out to be the work of Artist Dan Dubowitz. There are many more of them around the area…

“The artwork, called The Peeps, currently utilises 20 places across the former industrial suburb of Ancoats, and includes a tunnel, a bell tower, a toilet, and even a space inside a mill closed up since the war.

Each of the locations has been walled in and lit. Spy holes have then been installed in them so people can peep through to see the artworks within, which range from mysteriously lit interiors to preserved sewing machine workshops.”

I really like the subtlety of it all. It’s just left to be discovered by the more curious among us, and heard about through word of mouth. There is nothing in-the-round to see, it is without plaque or interpretation panel or guide. No one will know quite how many there are or where they are as more continue to be added, unannounced. I love that.

It appeals to the voyeur in all of us. Giving us access to an otherwise lost environment and era. Preservation at it’s most imaginative. A round of applause to Mr Dubowitz and the Ancoats Urban Village Company for commissioning the project in the first place.

Building on the recent trend for student shops. Manchester Graduates have plotted up in legendary Northern Quarter store Afflecks Palace…

“MMU in partnership with Affleck’s and the MMU Student’s Union have developed a shop space for students and recent graduates from the School of Art to sell their own hand-made products, run classes for the public, use as a workshop space and possibly a gallery as well.”

You may have seen this on the democracy site…

“Windows of Opportunity is a great project taking place in the English city of York. Like many places the local economy has been hit hard by the recession and this has left many empty  shops. Windows of Opportunity is turning this negative into a positive, by creating spaces for designers to show their work.”

Not many examples up yet, but it’s a nice idea, check it out.

A few snaps of this years student show.