Items and Icons mod cons

Is it spring in the air or is contemporary art getting sexier? Hardest-core of the month's offerings: the 20p-a-go Ride (right), by award-winning figure sculptor Tony Johnson - a lifesize fibreglass female nude mounted on the sort of rocking machine common outside department stores. It was a sensation at last month's Art98 fair in Islington, and dealers Montpelier Sandelson have one of an edition of two left, at pounds 7,500. At the fair, groups of friends who paid 20p had a giggle, but individuals who plucked up courage to do the same looked panic-stricken when the rocking began and the recording of fairground music started blaring. View by appointment at Montpelier Sandelson, 4, Montpelier Street, London SW7 (0171-584 0667).

Jack Vettriano's 40-colour silkscreen Back Where You Belong (above left) is an edition of 250 offered at pounds 495 each by CCA Galleries, one of 20 exhibitors in the Contemporary Print Show at the Barbican's Concourse Gallery. Part 1 of the Print Show, March 6-17; part 2, March 20-30, entry free. CCA, who cater for a young market, have opened a new flagship gallery at 517 Fulham Road, London SW6. The kissing continues at the annual `Kiss VI' selling exhibition (left), curated for the sixth year by art critic Robin Dutt, this time at Gallery K in Hampstead until 8 March. Some 50 artists have submitted the results of their lip-reading on his 1998 theme - the colour blue. At 101-103 Heath Street, London NW3 (0171-794 4949).

Upside-down at the fair: the hyper-realist with a sense of humour, 59-year-old Mike Francis, is offering his 90cm Fair View (left) for pounds 3,300 at Whitford Fine Art, one of the exhibitors at the Spring Olympia Fair, London, open today (11am-7pm) and tomorrow (11am-5pm). Enquiries: 0171- 370 8186/8212