Notorious street artist Banksy has once against sparked controversy with his latest piece, a vandalised bust of a priest entitled 'Cardinal Sin' which has been unveiled in - and loaned indefinitely to - the Walker Gallery in Liverpool.

The bust's face has been sawed off and replaced with blank tiles, similar to how a criminal's face is blocked out on television or in the newspapers. The piece is said to be in response to the child abuse scandal and subsequent cover-up in the Catholic church.

"I'm never sure who deserves to be put on a pedestal or crushed under one," Banksy said in an accompanying statement. "The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of year it's easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse."

The director of art galleries at National Museums Liverpool Reyahn King said Banksy approached the gallery and specified that his sculpture be shown alongside the gallery's period collection such as an alterpiece painted for the Archbishop of Saville by the Spanish artist Murillo in 1673 and Rubens' painting The Virgin and Child with St Elizabeth and the Child Baptist.

There's no doubt Banksy's 'Cardinal Sin' will anger members of the Catholic Church, but what do you think about the world's most notorious street artist's new gallery work?

To see Banksy's latest street art, click here.

To enter our competition to win a Banksy worth £2000, click here. 

 
Fresh from creating the poster for the Occupy Wall Street movement, Shepard Fairey fittingly designed the new cover of Time Magazine's Person Of The Year, which this year went to 'The Protesters'.

Time's Person Of The Year usually goes to one person deemed the most influential of that year, but this year Time gave a nod to all of the people on the street who brought about change in the Arab world as well as those that protested against corporate greed in the West.

Time magazine said on their website:

Shepard Fairey’s iconic designs require work by hand and digital rendering, so when faced with creating an image that must illustrate a body of unrest that has spent the year not only protesting on the streets, but online, he’s a perfect fit.

As the artist behind our Person of the Year 2011 cover commemorating this year’s pick, The Protester, Fairey says his cover image is based on a composite of 26 different photographs of real protests from around the world. “These organic protest movements have arisen around the globe and a lot of it was fueled by social media, but it was a pervasive phenomenon,” he said. “It wasn’t one specific movement but general unrest. I wanted to look for ideas to represent that.”

Fairey, who also created TIME’s Person of the Year cover for our Barack Obama selection in 2008 (based on his famous “Hope” poster), illustrated the cover by hand using the primary images as his reference, a selection of photos sent to him from TIME’s editors, and ripped heavily contrasted photos out of their prints to collage them before scanning them back into the computer. “I play around with different color combinations and different degrees of contrast of background material,” he said. “I’m always looking for the right push and pull between all the elements.” Like tone.



Click here to see more of Shepard Fairey's artwork and prints.

New Banksy street art that has appeared around the UK over the last two months.

Above: Spanish artist Mesa via Juxtapose. You can check out more of Mesa's work here and here.





While in Miami for a show, Melbourne artist Rone managed to fit in this wall painting. Image via his website.






Loving this Isaac Cordal work via Arrest Motion. Reminds us a little of Slinkachu's work.





Above - Raul, Zito and Tinho via Unurth.





And this Spongebob piece by Wooster Collective is sure to put a smile on your face.


See last week's 'On The Streets' here.

Big props to everyone who came down to the Village Underground Christmas Art Market on Sunday to drink mulled wine, eat mince pies, check out the live street art jam and say a big hello to us.

We had a ball meeting you all, and are rapt that we had such an overwhelming response to our grand Xmas Banksy competition in just one day! The competition is still on for another two weeks with the winner being drawn on Monday December 19. If you haven't entered yet, you're missing out on the chance to win an original Banksy worth £2000.

If you couldn't make it, here's what you missed out on...

 

Really loving seeing this piece go up by graffiti artist Tilt (via here) on the Village Underground wall. Will be great to see it when it's finished and coloured in to resemble a Union Jack. We'll be at Village Underground this Sunday for a massive Christmas market / art jam / party. Come down and say 'hi'.

This here's ANAT, via our Facebook friends I Support Street Art.







Can't wait to check out the Invader exhibition at The Outsiders gallery, which opens on Friday December 2.

Above, is ARYZ, also via I Support Street Art.








And lastly, EVOL whose show opens tonight Thursday December 1 at Pictures on Walls. Image via Arrested Motion.

See last week's On The Street here.