Art news

Yesterday me and Billy and Tiffany went on a bike ride from Brooklyn town to the Battery Maritime Building to check out David Bryne's "Playing the building" installation.
It was so amazing, even though we got soaked on the way there and back by New York City summer rains. Just the building is awesome, really old, with peeling paint and beautiful views. In the middle of the room was a piano, from each key there was a cord attached. Some of the cords went to a wall, to play a pipe(sounded like when you blow in to a glass bottle kind of) others went to another machine that hit different stone pillars.
The whole room had been made into a giant musical instrument, playing this strange sea song, very eery and beautiful. So why not make a stop downtown to hear David Bryne's colossal instrument, the show is open until 24 of August and its free! Check it!

Boxcopy Contemporary Art Space is one of the newer galleries on the Brissy art scene. It's an artist-run organisation aiming to engage and encourage innovative art and support emerging artists. Boxcopy runs solo and group exhibitions for artists working with various mediums. It runs on a not-for-profit basis and is free for artists. Six fine arts graduates founded the gallery and it's entirely self-funded by these six bright young things. So get out to the galley and show them some love:
Studio 3.10
Level 3, Metro Arts
109 Edward Street
Brisbane
Loseless is the current exhibition on at Boxcopy. It's curated by Channon Goodwin and featured artists include: Candice Cranmer (Melbourne), Alister Karl (Melbourne), Ngaio Parr (Brisbane), and Claire Robertson (Brisbane), Catherine Sagin (Brisbane) and Kate Woodcroft (Brisbane). It runs until this Sautrday 16th August so get over ASAP! Check out www.boxcopy.org for some more deets.

Fancy yourself as the next Marc Newson? The 12th International Design Festival of Sydney is offering emerging designers the chance to meet & greet with the masters and sell their own limited edition "Designsouvenirs" direct to the public. Designboom is an international market/exhibition (previous events have been held in Stockholm and Tokyo) that sees a group of designers selling work between $10 - $100. It's a great chance for young designers to get their name out there and for the public to get their hands on the next-big-thing....before the price tag reflects that of the next-big-thing. To find out more about the Designboom initiative and how to be a part of it, head to their website.

Surry Hills' gallery, Chalkhorse, this week presents two brilliant new exhibitions from local artists Sam Doctor and Julian Meagher. Entitled When Night Falls All Day Long, Doctor's collection explores the fragility and risk of mankind in the face of natural forces (a bit topical these days eh?) and puts to good use his skills in photography, painting, installation and sculpture. Meagher's work meanwhile will occupy the gallery upstairs and treat perusers to beautiful, spacial paintings based around medicine and the human body (Meagher is a former physician - don't these multi-talented types make you sick??). When Night Falls All Day Long and The Gesture of My Brain open this thursday from 6.30 pm. Chalkhorse can be found at 56 Copper Street, Surry Hills, NSW.

Before they become glued to the olympic opening ceremony, be sure to this Friday night cast your eyes over the latest exhibition at China Heights. Entitled "888", the show explores the complex and often controversial nature of contemporary Chinese Society and aims to stimulate discussion allow viewers to see beyond the glossy veneer of the Beijing Olympics. Curated my Mark Gerada, 888 has brought together 19 artists from around the world - including Spat & LoogiE and Jessie Brett. 888 opens from 6pm this Friday and runs until September 13. Chinba Heights is at 257 Crown St, Surry Hills.

If you’re near Shorditch this September then step into the Kemistry Gallery to catch comic artist Zarina Liew’s latest exhibition called The Hunter. Her willowy inks and narrative inspired illustrations give the kiss of love to any surgical white gallery walls. But if you’re no where near London, say, swimming on a tropical island somewhere, then I envy you. But you can still check out her collections at www.cobaltcafe.co.uk, or her myspace chronicles details on this very exhibition at http://www.myspace.com/cobalt_cafe. Zarina likes old fashioned back-street romance, green tea, Spirited Away and Aubrey Beardsley for her inky inspirations.

British authorities recently celebrated a small 'win' following the news that the infamous incognito - guerrila graffiti artist Banksy - no longer assumed the ambiguous identity of masked vandal. After a year of intensive investigative reporting, the Daily Mail controversially claimed to have uncovered 'the Scarlet Pimpernel of modern art' last month as Robin Gunningham, an unassuming Brit brought up in middle class suburbia. The only clue rests in a photograph allegedly picturing Banksy in Jamaica with a spray can at his feet. Having continually perpetuated an aura of uncertainty in regards to his identity - with age, name and location always a mystery; this discovery initially seemed one of gargantuan proportions, if it was indeed true. Banksy's satirical street art purporting subversive political messages has not always been embraced on the public domains it encroaches upon, with local councils such as Tower Hamlets in London immediately removing all of his works. However, the whereabouts of Gunningham have so far been impossible for the paper to trace, with the man's own mother denying that she ever had a son. It seems that the anti-authoritarian mastermind has evaded detection once again.