If you're not familiar with the PBS series Art:21 -- and even if you are -- listen up: Season Five of the popular series has just been announced and the roster is pretty hot.

Art21 is pleased to announce Season Five of Art:21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century, premiering in October 2009 on PBS, and available on iTunes, Hulu, and other online platforms (I got it from Netflix and watched them all at once which rocked) in the United States and Canada. Meet fourteen of today's most intriguing and thought-provoking contemporary artists as they create works that reflect important and timely issues. In its most international season to date, Art21 traveled to every continent (except Antarctica) to film artists in museums, galleries, studios and homes.

Season Five features four one-hour episodes: Compassion, Fantasy, Transformation, and Systems. As in previous seasons, the thematic groupings serve as threads that loosely tie the artists together into a single episode.

Who's involved?? Some of my favorites, including William Kentridge, Cao Fei, Mary Heilmann, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Cindy Sherman, John Baldessari, Allan McCollum, and Julie Mehretu.

Check out their site for more info. The series began in 2001 and has featured 72 artists to date. Make sure to check out the archive of artists -- where you can see slideshows of their work and video interviews from the series -- including Laurie Anderson, Matthew Barney, Cai Guo-Qiang, Bruce Nauman, Raymond Pettibon, Shahzia Sikander, Kara Walker, Mike Kelley, and Jenny Holzer.