In a time when gas prices are soaring and cavalier road trips are on a steep decline, the Indianapolis Museum of Art is paying tribute to the ultimate road trippers, writer Jack Kerouac and photographer Robert Frank. Both men were part of the nomadic, counter culture activity surrounding the Beat poets of the 1950s and 1960s and both were as dedicated to roaming as they were to channeling their experience into their art. The Indianapolis exhibition, titled On the Road Again, features the 120 foot scroll on which Kerouac originally wrote On the Road during his 1957 cross country sojourns. The exhibition also includes 83 photographs taken by Beat generation artists Robert Frank during his own two year travels across the states. Frank originally published the images in Les Americains in 1958, a book for which Kerouac wrote the introduction, saying that Frank had captured that “crazy feeling in America when the sun is hot on the streets and music comes out of the jukebox or from a nearby funeral.”

Jim Irsay, who owns the Indianapolis Colts, also owns Kerouac’s scroll. In the above video, Irsay discusses first seeing the scroll, the thrill of road trips, radicalism, and the Beats. On the Road Again will remain on exhibit through September 21, 2008.

Indigenous Australian art has long been associated with traditional dot paintings. Such customary methods of art practice can be viewed as a system of keeping alive a culture otherwise threatened by assimilation. Contemporary Aboriginal artists are now charting new territory, creating works based in photo-media, video and film. The documentary nature of these mediums enhances a political agenda and evades ethnographic pigeonholing. The works displayed within Living Black have been created entirely from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and consist of both traditional and contemporary artforms.

Brenda L. Croft’s poignant ilfochrome photography reflects her experiences growing up in suburban Australia with an Aboriginal father and Caucasian mother. Other works of hers on display narrate her father’s plight as a victim of the Stolen Generation. At the age of two he was taken from his family due to government policy and raised in a Christian run missionary. Alongside Croft’s works are those by Tony Albert, Daniel Boyd, Sally Morgan and Richard Bell, all of whom steer away from what can be perceived as traditional Aboriginal art.

Located within the Yiribana exhibition space of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the room is devoted to hosting indigenous art exhibitions. Its positioning within one of Australiaís most renowned galleries creates a level of accessibility, which is somewhat marred by its placement in the basement of the gallery.

High Energy Construct’s recent exhibition champions the unexpected potentials of colored pencils. Working in the underrepresented drawing medium, artists Dennis Koch and Claudia Nieto channel the psychedelic effervescence of 60s album covers while also referencing the geometric formalism of modern design. Koch’s drawings of multi-colored twin targets have a playful ritualism that seems like a hybrid between Jasper Johns‘ smart target paintings and Laylah Ali‘s idiosyncratically self-confident caricatures. They complement Nieto’s more narrative topographies, which seem to freely reinterpret nature’s most symbolic shapes – rivers, rainbows, mountains. Like most shows at High Energy, one of the newer galleries in LA’s Chinatown, new work shows that fine-tuned craftsmanship doesn’t have to be canonical or crippled by the austere history of modern art. Koch’s and Nieto’s work not only evidence diligent attention to finish but also evidence equally diligent attention to the exuberant, culturally-charged potentials of color and shape. While they have the classy expertise of any color field masterpiece, the drawings in new work also gauge the high energy allure of a rainbow colored parachute.

Claudia Nieto, who received her MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2006, previously displayed work at Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, and participated in a 2006 group show at High Energy Constructs. Dennis Koch studied political science and studio art at University of Iowa before moving to Los Angeles in 2006. This is his first show at High Energy. New work runs through August 2, 2008.

A collection of works by acclaimed Australian artist, Mike Parr are currently on show at Anna Schwartz Gallery, Darlington. Entitled Milk, the exhibition takes form as a photographic montage, documenting various performance, installation and pictorial works by the artist. Some particularly memorable represented pieces include the shocking Cathartic Action: Social Gestus No. 5, where Parr appears to be amputating his own arm by hacking into a prosthetic one, and the Emetics (Primary Vomit Series), which sees the artist vomiting a series of red, blue, and yellow paints. Parr is known for the masochistic nature of many of his performances with titles that are often very literal in meaning. These include Crush Some Meat in Your Hand, Pull Hairs in Your Armpit and Hold Your Breath Underwater for as Long as Possible.

Parr studied at Queensland University and East Sydney Technical College. He has been exhibiting his work for nearly 40 years, where it has appeared on both a local and international scale at institutions including the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan, the Guggenheim, New York and Museo de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro. In 1997 he was awarded the Sponsorís Prize at the Sapporo 4th International Print Biennale.

Os Gemeos, which translates to “the twins” in Portuguese, are identical twin brothers from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who began break dancing at an early age and later moved on to the visual arts. Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo transformed Brazilian street art and have since exhibited at museums all over the world including their first solo exhibition at The Luggage Store in San Francisco in 2003. Their influences include hip hop culture, American street movies, and Sao Paulo protest art. Their subject matter ranges from family portraits to commentary on Sao Paulo’s political and social affairs as well as Brazilian folklore.

On June 28th, the brothers opened Too Far Too Close at Deitch Projects in New York. For the exhibition, they will be transforming the gallery space into a fantastical cityscape, complete with passages, houses, and doors. Their signature imagery includes characters, background, and letters, and can range from graffiti tags to complicated murals. This exhibition will include new paintings, sculpture and installations that build upon a group of work created for the Museum Het Domein in the Netherlands. Os Gemeos have been reviewed by the New York Times in 2006 which referred to their style as “sort of Dr. Seuss on acid.” Their work has an appealing and universal quality that has drawn the attention of fans including cult figure Barry McGee and Nike C.E.O. Mark Parker.

Too Far Too Close will remain at Deitch Projects until August 9, 2008.

Currently on view at Luhring Augustine Gallery in New York City is the new exhibition It’s Not Your Fault, works by nine Icelandic artists. The exhibition explores the artist’s irresolute feelings of the historical and geographic backgrounds and experiences within their home country. The result is a varied exhibition with works that confront the countries current conditions, ideas related Icelandic identity and the local tradition of narrative storytelling. Many of the works include performance and the use of theatrical staging and tools.

The exhibition is curated by Markus Thor Andresson in collaboration with Ragnar Kjartansson, whose work is pictured above. Participating artists include: Birgir Andresson, Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, Asmundur Asmundsson, Asdis Sif Gunnarsdottir, Unnar Orn, Haraldur Jonsson, Katrin Sigurdardottir and Magnus Sigurdarson.

Currently on view at Platform Gallery in Seattle’s Pioneer Square is the exhibition A Peculiar Brightness in the Sky, new works by artists Patte Loper. The artist uses historical accounts of discover in Antarctica as a framework for her drawings in her second solo exhibition with Platform. Impromptu huts and primitive exploration equipment are used to convey a sense of desperation along side a emotional rapture as these uncharted lands are discovered. The artist also uses the landscape as a metaphor for personal and emotive states, “hostile, empty, beautiful.” Loper is a MFA graduate from the San Francisco Art Institute. Recent exhibitions include A New Way North at Lyonswier Ortt Contemporary in New York City, Octet at Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle, and Monster Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA.