“Gilbert and George, the rude old men of British art, will lead the UK presence at the 2005 Venice Biennale.” (story from The Guardian). Here’s the Wikipedia’s entry about them; if you want it more serious (kind of un-Gilbert-and-George’ish) go here. Also don’t miss this article.

Late last year, I managed to see one of their pieces in London, and I admit I wasn’t quite prepared for it: I knew the pieces are quite colourful and impressive, but I had no idea of how they actually work when you see them - they’re huge.

Their latest series is called “Sonofagod” (subtitled “Was Jesus Heterosexual?”), described in an article aptly entitled We’d hate to offend. Needless to say, some people did get offended (this link for Americans who think that only in the US members of parliament have nothing better to do than to harrass artists). I do like Gilbert and George’s response to this: “the artists say that the works are not offensive. Gilbert: ‘Christians are abusive to humans - to women, to queers. They threaten us with hell.’ George: ‘That’s offensive, not us.’” They might have a point there.
(updated entry)