Art news

If you are in Brisbane this weekend you should chck out this Amazing Show.
'Run With Us' is a collection of new works by Murdoch Stafford, Elana Mullaly, Sofles,
Joel Birch, Luke Dyms and Mikel.
The show encompasses a broad range of artistic styles including pen and ink illustration, watercolours, graffiti, photography and hand drawn typography.
Coming from the dingy underworld of hip-hop and punk rock, the artists
revel in their influences creating lowbrow artwork for the masses.
Opening night: Saturday 12th January @ 7pm.
Exhibition continues 13th January.
S&M Studios, West End (Cnr Beattie and Skinner)

Three individuals make up the group known as 'The Bogside Artists'. The group is famous for their murals in the area of Derry, Northern Ireland, known as Free Derry Corner. These murals depict key events of 'the Troubles' in the city since 1968. The artists have lived in the Bogside most of their lives and have experienced the worst of the conflict. This exhibition of their work is a chronicle of those events that they consider to have been the most significant during the last thirty years. In telling this story they have served a pressing need for their community and Derry people in general to acknowledge with dignity if not pride the price paid by those who became victims of the struggle for democratic rights. Their work therefore is essentially a homage. 
Visiting this site referred to as 'The Peoples Gallery 'was a sound reminder that not all is always peaceful in civilised society.
You can read more on these artists and the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Your favourite annual art book, CURVY - created by the team behind YEN magazine - is calling out for art works for 2008.

CURVY has been kicking up a creative storm since 2004 and with four editions out, CURVY still remains an international favourite amongst lovers of art and supporters of female artists. The CURVY publications have been packed with a diverse range of work both from Australia and abroad and has featured the world’s leading female artists as well as unveiling names that will and have no doubt pushed the directions of design in the near future.
 
We are looking for submissions of a diverse range of illustrative mediums. And while there is no theme set for 2008, please keep in mind that while we love receiving images of the female form, please try to look outside this theme when producing your works. To keep CURVY alive and flourishing original works will be favoured.
 
FORMAT FOR SUBMISSIONS: Please be careful when editing your work and send a
maximum of three submissions. For this first step, we require files to be in pdf, jpg or eps format, no bigger than 500K per image.  The CURVY book size is  220 x 260 mm (5mm bleed included). It’s ideal to submit full bleed art book to fit one page.  Please email your submission to finalart@ptmg.com.au - make sure to include your contact details including a mobile number and the country you’re from. In the event that your work is to be included in CURVY 5 you will be contacted via email for a high res file.
 
This year there will be two submissions phases. Phase one deadline is 14 January 2008. It's wise to adhere to this deadline as only a certain amount of spots will be held open for the phase two of submissions.
 
Successful artists will be contacted via email the week after the closing date.
 
CURVY 5 will be launched 3 April in Sydney followed by interstate dates. For details on book launch events and exhibitions regular newsletters will be sent out and information will be updated via this website.

A master of the cute and quirky, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is known for stretching the parameters of conventional art practise - creating work that infiltrates all corners of pop culture, from pens to dolls, while still gaining space in formal art institutions. He’s taken this to the next level with an unprecedented move in museum history, by joining forces with luxury mammoth Louis Vuitton in a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, where a pop-up version of a LV store selling luxury leather goods has been plonked right in the middle of his exhibition.
Murakami has always sought to break the barriers between low and high art, what better way than to grant free rent to a luxury brand within a non-profit gallery (who will not receive any profits from the sales of the limited-edition Murakami designed handbags going for $875 to $920 a pop). Seems like LV wins this time.

I can’t remember where I first saw Julia De Ville's work but I can remember thinking it was some of the most beautiful jewellery I had ever seen - In a kind of impermanency affirming, plastic-bag-in-the-breeze sort of way. You see, it essentially was not jewellery, but taxidermy; what I was looking at were brooches made from diamond-eyed bird skulls, Hatpins fashioned from tiny mice (their tales dipped in 18kt gold) and other such morbid trinkets that made you second-guess your own taste. It seems Melbourne store FAT share my outraged affection for DeVille, as they've been stocking her collections for a while now and will tomorrow be unveiling another. Entitled “Disce Mori”, the range is inspired by the memento mori jewellery that 17th century widows would create in memory of their husbands (a Latin term, memento mori translates to “remember that you are mortal”). The collection is a mix of costume and dress jewellery including broaches, bracelets and heirloom style rings; all carrying Julia’s signature of gold and silversmithing combined with once-living materials such as petrified wood, hair and taxidermy.
P.S before the complaints flood in, Julia DeVille is not a killer of baby animals- she in fact loves our furry and feathered friends and only ever uses animals that died of natural causes.

Jesse Leroy Smith

It's started to happen again. The new generation of creatives are leaving their studying hubs of the last four years to go on and start their own careers. If you're interested to see what they have on offer, I suggest you get down to at least one exhibition. I'm intrigued by what the UTS students have on offer this year. I'm told the foyer of 'that' building will be totally transformed with models hanging around wearing the next look, industrial design objects showcasing the plans for the future plus the arts from the interior and visual communication designers will be on display. The exhibition runs until Saturday 8 December.