Art news

Mashed potato, ninja stars and staghorn ferns are just some of the unorthadox materials used in Disruptive Colouration; a collection of sculptural works from installation artists Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy. The exhibition is being hosted at the Waterloo's GBK art space and - as it co-incides with the official unveiling of GBK's bigger, better gallery - will be opened by Sydney MCA director, Elizabeth Ann MacGregor on February 12.

Sydney's Chalkhorse Gallery has experienced a recent growth spurt and will be making good use of it's two new levels on Thursday with three fantastic Solo Exhibitions. It's a Nuthouse is artist Raquel Welch's "Hall of Fame of crackpots and lunatics". Inspired by her obsession with extreme characters in American pop culture, Welch's show is cartoonish and slightly creepy - featuring hand-stitched portraits of Pee Wee Herman and Dolly Patron. Jelena Telecki's Rekonstrukcija is a visual attempt at recovering and re-examining memories; her paintings incorporate pre-war family snapshots and found photographs. Lastly, Jessica Tyrrell presents Tactile: a video installation that renders and reflects the experience of Blindness. All exhibitions open 6pm Thursday.

As a twenty-something you can generally expect your living zone to range from a room in a crowded share-house to a shoebox-sized studio; making what there is of your personal space very precious indeed - and one not to be cluttered with boxy, extraneous furnishings. Melbourne designer Dusko Lapcevic has acknowleged the space contsraints faced by nesting Gen Y’ers with the Dusko Collection from Smith Furniture range; a trio of multifunctional pieces that saw him take out the inaugral young designer furniture award in 07. Consisting of a sofa (as shown above), a day bed and a chair, the range is completely Australia made; utilising allergy friendly Dunlop foam for versatility and Warwick microsuede for a timeless and adaptable finish. As well as being easy on the eye (and back!) the Dusko collection is also wallet friendly, meaning you can spend both your space and your dosh on the things that young people should be.

While studying in Berlin Two years ago, artist Nadia Wagner met Christophe Laudamile; a perfumer for fragrance giant International Flavours and Fragrances. Having worked with scent in the fields of high fashion and couture, Laudamile introduced Wagner to a realm of fragrance production that goes beyond the limits of commercialism (does that include "Curious' by Britney Spears?) Now Nadia has used that knowledge in producing her first solo show "Urban Olfactics 1A/1B". In curatorial collaboration with Joel Mu, Urban Olfactics is a collection of conceptual fragrances alchemized by Nadia in an attempt to capture different aspects of the urban environment. Confused? Fascinated? Find out what it’s all about TONIGHT ONLY, from 6pm at Sydney’s Blank Space gallery.

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.