More Six for 2006 madness here at EMERGE as the year-end nostalgia washes over us. Anything is better than worrying about what to get our loved ones for the holidays.

For this installment the focus is visual art and design. As with our film and music wrap-ups, this latest edition is not intended to be the definitive best of 2006 list, but rather a peek at some of the breakout talents and legendary characters who left their mark over the past 12 months.

in no particular order

1. Banksy
The obligatory blogger inclusion, Banksy certainly deserves all the praise that's been heaped upon his work over the past year. A long-standing fixture on the street art scene for the past few years thanks to his playful yet politcal brand of social commentary, 2006 saw him transform from an acclaimed stencil artist into a full blown artstar thanks to the publication of Wall and Piece, his Barely Legal warehouse art show in Los Angeles, and his controversial Paris Hilton Remix prank. While EMERGE lucked out and bought two numbered seriographs back in 2003 for 50GBP, his work is now changing hands at auction for upwards of $100,000. So yes, we have a bit of stake in tooting Banksy's horn, but we'd be backing this dude big time even if we weren't already collecting his work.

2. Graffiti Research Lab
Another blogger favorite, the folks behind Graffiti Research Lab have adapted the notion of open source from its original context within the computer programming world to that of art and protest. Conceived in reaction to "commercial and corporate culture," GRL fuses the renegade spirit of with the know-how to "develop and test a range of experimental technologies for the state-of-the-art graffiti writer." Translation: these guys have turned the geeky Linux paradigm on its ear and applied it to inventing ways to create "graffiti" using things like LED throwies, interactive architecture, and the the night writer. Part of the Eyebeam OpenLab, GRL provides DIY instructions for all of their creations as well as extensive documentation of their use in action. A human impulse to leave our mark has been with us since the dawn of civilization. It's fascinating to see such a primal urge combine so fruitfully with technology.

3. Factory Records: A Complete Graphic Album published by Chronicle Books
This one could have gone in our music round up as well, but here is where it belongs. Enough rhapsodizing about Joy Division, New Order, OMD and A Certain Ratio has been done over the past few years (see 24 Hour Party People and Anton Corbjin's forthcoming Ian Curtis biopic). But the sheer brilliance of the imprint's visual identity and the intellectual depth behind so much of the design work from Peter Saville, Central Station Design, and 8vo deserves the same reverence. A nationally celebrated bit of British pop culture history, Factory has never enjoyed the same adulation Stateside. Hopefully the publication of this absolutely killer catalog will help remind people of the magic contained both on and within a classic record sleeve. iTunes' coverflow feature's got nothing on this.

4. Mark Gonzales
The Gonz is a certifiable legend in the skateboarding world. A pro since he was 15 years old (in 1984), he helped define modern street skating not just by innovating maneuvers, but by founding one of the 90's most iconic skate companies, Blind, a brand that helped transform skateboard films (thanks to classics like Video Days) and fashion (Blind made some of the first super baggie pants). But many don't realize that Gonzales was also the first skater to illustrate his own skateboard graphics, helping to kickstart one of the most significant visual movements of the past two decades. First showing at Aaron Rose's seminal Alleged Gallery, he's exhibited around the world and is collected by celebrities including Diddy and Donald Trump. Gonzales has also published a book entitled Broken Poem in 1998, and has produced several limited run sculptures, including a series of ceramic figures with cult record label Mo Wax. His creative forays have also included working with the quarterly arts publication The Journal as a guest editor as well as showing in their New York gallery space and at their event at A href=http://http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/ca/cc/ss/ TARGET="_Blank">Art Basel Miami Beach. This show was a series of screen prints featuring passages from the bible selected by fellow skate legend Christian Hosoi, which further cements the intense interrelation between Gonzales' role as a pioneering skateboarder and visual powerhouse. His status as a legendary skater and artist has led Gonzales to serve as captain of the Adidas Skateboarding team, which also borrows heavily from his signature style. He's been here for over twenty years, but 2006 has seen Gonzales come into is own, winning further acclaim as a skater and as an artist, all in his own off-kilter style.

5. So Me
Known by the authorities as Bertrand Lagros, 21 year old So Me has shot to the top of the international design and illustration scene thanks to his role as creative director of EMERGE-approved record label Ed Banger. The Parisian illustrator and designer blends hand lettered text with quirky illustrations and portraits that often garner descriptives like "grin-inducing" and "eye-popping." As Ed Bangers has grown into a bonafide international phenomenon, so to has So Me; his work has graced the covers of magazines including Sleazenation and XLR8R, and he contributes designs to cult Japanese clothing brand Revolver. With plans for exhibitions as well as new ventures including forays into film on the horizon, 2006 is likely to be just the beginning for this incredibly talented and prolific creative.

6. Kehinde Wiley
Probably the most buzzed-about young artist working in New York, Kehinde Wiley is a 29 year old painter who blends a neoclassical approach to portraiture with a streetlevel subject matter, depicting young urban black men in a style reminiscent of masters such as Titian. The central conceit of Wiley's work is the juxtaposition of the "visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, history, wealth, power, and prestige" against subjects drawn from the artists somewhat more prosaic urban environs. A tension along lines of race and class runs through all of Wiley's work; what distinguishes him from other politicized artists is his intense knowledge of art history and technical mastery, which allows for virtuosic references to the Old Masters as well as explorations of contemporary masculinity. Having graduated from Yale's presitgious MFA program, Wiley has held a residency at the Studio Museum of Harlem, and shown at Deitch Projects, Roberts and Tilton, Belgium's Sorry We're Closed Gallery, and this past week's Art Basel Miami Beach.

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