Hot on the heels of his last police portrait, Australian graffiti writer LUSH painted another mind-blowing piece.

Photo by Mercyful Fate

Like all good adventures, this one is lacking in details and plans, but I promise it won’t end with me starved to death in the Alaskan tundra unless Emile Hirsch signs on to play me in the film version.

Feel free to follow along on my personal blog and Twitter account. See you around, folks!

Image via GB

Artist Kelsey Bennett opens an exhibition of “contemporary daydreams” next week at Christopher Henry Gallery. Contemplating gender, sexuality and identity issues, the New York-based photographer creates vibrant, surrealistic images.Benett’s solo show “Hypnagogia” is fittingly named after the pre-sleep consciousness when one might see these scenes: a boy bemoaning his bowl of eyeballs, a balding Easter Bunny and rotten apples, spiked with nails.

“Hypnagogia,” January 14 – February 7, Christopher Henry gallery, 127 Elizabeth Street

Street artist M-City followed up his recent wall painting in Long Island City, putting up a legal mural with Gaia in Bed Stuy. The duo finished stenciling and pasting up their collaborative collage over the last couple days in spite of frigid temperatures. Organized by Brooklynite Gallery and situated down the street, the finished work features some of the artists’ signature styles: bold buildings, birds and gears.

Mayor Bloomberg celebrated his third inauguration last week with an all-city excursion that including a bit of Bronx bombing. After taking part in volunteer projects around the city, Bloomberg joined up with the mostly legal graffiti painting Tats Cru at The Point CDC to put his name up. Armed with a paint brush, the mayor signed off on their canvas, writing “Michael Bloomberg” in cursive letters while his compatriot opted for the slightly longer and bolder tag, “Bx Boro President Ruben Diaz.” Tats Cru photographed the “only in New York” occasion proving that the Mayor can appreciate a handstyle, even a wack one so long as it’s not illicit.

Photos by Tats Cru

Later this month, Bennett Morris unveils some beautifully disastrous photos with the opening of “Climate Untamed,” his solo show at Williamsburg’s Like the Spice Gallery. The Maine-based artist builds large-scale dioramas, handcrafted from pieces of model kits, bits of trash and other building materials. These careful constructions are then drowned in water as paint and color are added to create ethereal, underwater landscapes. Out of Morris’ soaked study of beauty, fear, and “the diluted modern politics of ‘Shock and awe,’” come these photographs, simultaneously dark and delightful.

“Climate Untamed,” January 22 – February 5, Like the Spice Gallery, 224 Roebling Street

Wannabe pets are taking drastic steps to become relevant in the run-up to the Chinese New Year, marking the start of the Year of the Tiger.

Photo by Sean Yong/Reuters

Next week, Unreserved Alliance opens an exhibition focused on American Indian art at the Chelsea Art Museum. Twenty-four artists, both emerging and established, showcase a collection of pieces that include this stunning portrait of a coyote with a hot dog by Phoenix-based artist Steven Yazzie.

Popularly seen as kidnappers and killers, the coyote is also a mythological character in many American Indian cultures. Although the folklore varies, the coyote character is typically cast as a trickster with anthropomorphic qualities that might help explain why this one is drooling all over a mustard-laden piece of processed meat.

“IN/SIGHT 2010,” January 15 – February 13, UNRESERVED at the Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street

“Coyote with Hot Dog” by Steven Yazzie via Unreserved Alliance

Blu recently wrapped up work on a new mural in Buenos Aires, and what’s more it’s part of another massive wall animation. For the last few weeks the Italian street artist has been painting the new stop motion film, which may even include some human interactions. Until the results are fully revealed, we can only speculate about this giant illustration of this city-sprouting cadaver, a perfect postlude to his crypt creation in Peru. |Blu|

Street artist Dickchicken took some time off his cock-faced clucker campaign to let Playboy film his penis. His face fittingly obscured, the anonymous artist also known as Richard Poultry, shared some thoughts on his budding street art career.

“Everyone buffs out my stuff because it to them is offensive … and I mean really, who wants a three-foot dick spray painted on their building?” In response, he works “twice as hard,” a fowl effort that appears to be paying off. He’s already had a solo exhibit showcasing his cartoon character, has fans on flickr, and a completely deranged outlook on his rising street art stardom, actually saying, “I had no idea I would be so quickly put up into the top tiers of the most sought-after graffiti artists in New York.”