IF sharks in formaldehyde and a giant crack in the ground don't sound like art to you – join the club.
Did you spot the gold discs stuck all over the Henry Moore Gallery?
Even if you did, you probably don't class that as art either.
Modern art is one of those wonderful like it or loathe it phenomena, like Marmite, wasabi, thongs and Lost.
And it seems to be getting weirder by the day, with artists determined to outdo each other by creating the least artistic thing imaginable.
A perfect example is this so-called sculpture by artist Graham Hudson in a London park.
He claims it's a statue of Saddam Hussein's first wife Sajida Talfah – but it's a dead ringer for a boulder wrapped in blue plastic, criss-crossed in tape.
Concept
Whatever the message behind such "concept" pieces, many feel like a 21st century version of the Emperor's New Clothes.
I must admit, I'm not exactly an art aficionado, although I used to love kids' TV show Take Hart and can certainly appreciate things of great beauty.
It's just that for me, they're more likely to be found in Whistles and Karen Millen than Leeds City Art Gallery.
But now, shoving Leeds lad Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin into the shadows, a new set of artistic enfant terribles have arrived.
Trendspotters know that this year the only art that counts is street art – previously known as graffiti.
Critics have called it "puerile and idiotic" and refuse to accept it as an art form.
But we're not talking about morons with spray cans daubing phrases like "Daz woz ere" on every surface.
The world's most famous guerrilla artist, Banksy, fills his work with anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment and pro-freedom sentiments – it's intelligent as well as pleasing on the eye.
Street art can be a small black and white stencilled image, huge colourful mural, and everything in between and it can breathe life into a grim urban landscape.
But its appeal has now gone mainstream, with the first auction dedicated to urban art held this month at Bonhams.
And hardcore fans believe selling it off for six-figure sums misses the point – it's meant to be public art, free and accessible not exclusive and costly.
Endorsed
Still, for those of us who aren't satisfied with walking past it on the way to work and want to own it, plenty of street artists now commit their work to canvas and cardboard as well as less-movable materials.
And while the genre has hit the headlines because it is endorsed by stars like Brangelina, ordinary folk want a piece of it because it's modern, irreverent, beautiful, and speaks to them in a language they understand, more than most traditional artwork ever could.
Generations X and Y can see greater value in art that comments on the world we know, than in images like the Mona Lisa or Van Gogh's Sunflowers.
And let's face it, some of the work lauded around the globe, by artists like Jackson Pollock, look like they could've been produced by a toddler with a few tins of paint.
So if a pickled sheep, a man dressed as a bear, and a bare room featuring a light that switches on and off are all classed as art, I don't see how anyone can argue that images produced with a spray can aren't.
debbie.leigh@ypn.co.uk