Tim Hawkinson’s first Australian exhibition “Mapping the Marvellous,” is currently on show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. In addition to photo collages and drawings, The Los Angeles based artist is best known for creating theatrical sculptural and installation works through the use of mundane materials. Works on display include a bat constructed from plastic bags and an iris made of green biros. Hawkinson initially graduated from San Jose State University before later earning his MFA at the University of California. Exhibitions in which he has previously displayed his work include the 1999 Venice Biennale, “Zoopsia” – a solo exhibition at the Getty in Los Angeles and “How Man is Knit” at the Pace Wildenstein, New York earlier this year.

The current exhibition at Dean Project, “Guys & Dolls: Seeing Stars”, is a two-person exhibition of photographs by Rose Hartman and Holger Keifel that juxtaposes revealing moments of boxing personalities with those of social celebrities. Dating from the 1970’s through today, Rose Hartman and Holger Keifel’s photographs include world known figures, such as Jackie O, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, Oscar de la Hoya, Evander Holyfield, and Don King.

Displayed in one room, the portraits raise questions about social class, beauty, power, and contemporary society. Moreover, Rose and Holger’s photos capture intimate “behind the scene” moments that belie the idealized image represented to the public. Both photographers have had their work published and exhibited extensively worldwide. Rose Hartman’s work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Vogue, W magazine; she has also exhibited in group shows including The Museum of the City of New York, The Paterson Museum, and The Whitney Museum. Holger Keifel’s work has been published in Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, The Observer Sports Monthly and his work has been exhibited at The Corcoran Gallery, The Butler Museum of Contemporary Art, Florida Atlantic University, his work is in several museum collections including The Museum of the City of New York.

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria‘s current exhibit, “Undone,” features artists Tim Holmes, Tony Matelli, Eileen Quinlan, and Heather Rowe. Each artist was commissioned to create a piece for the show in which identity, space, or form is defined by its own fragmented, unfinished, or unraveling condition. Hyper-realistic bronze weeds by Toni Matelli sprout from corners in the gallery, as if they were attempting to overtake the gallery and undo the white box environment. Architecturally driven artist Heather Rowe has created an architectural screen that at once uses and deconstructs the corporate surroundings of the 5,200 square-foot Sculpture Court. Eileen Quinlan produced photographs of smoke reflected in broken mirrors, and artist Tom Holmes constructed photo sculptural works that alter and distort the medium as a metaphor for the fracturing of identity as a contemporary condition.

Four exhibitions are organized annually in the 900-square-foot gallery, with an emphasis on solo exhibitions by contemporary living artists. Each year, one or two projects are also presented in the Sculpture Court, a glass-enclosed atrium with public seating and an espresso bar. Lunchtime gallery tours are offered every Wednesday and Friday at 1 pm.

Artist Ross Bleckner recently exhibited a series of new paintings at the Mary Boone Gallery Chelsea location. Bleckner employs a series of leaf-and-vine pattern in each of the works which optically seems to hover over the painting surface. The “Meditation” paints reference spiritual imagery such as mandalas. The paintings, which use both symbolic and organic forms simultaneously, operate on both a formal and conceptual platform. Bleckner was born in New York in 1949, graduated from New York University in 1971 and California College of the Arts 1973. He currently lives and works in NYC. Blecker began showing with Mary Boone in 1983, and since has completed a dozen shows with the gallery. Addition recent solo exhibitions include works at Ruzicska Gallery, Salzburg, Austria “Dialogue with Space”, Esbjerg Art Museum, Esbjerg, Denmark and Maureen Paley/Interim Art, London, England.

For its first exhibition opening in 2008 gallery PPOW in New York City will present “Islands,” its seventh exhibitions featuring the collaborative works of Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz. For their recent body of work the two artists have created a series of fictional wintry island landscapes which are inhabited by small communities of people. It appears in the works that most of the planet has been swallowed up and the remaining tops of mountains are the last place for civilization to go. Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz have been working collaboratively for the past 14 years, and have exhibited internationally with works in the collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, La Caixa in Barcelona, Spain and the KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. In addition to the PPOW exhibition in NYC, the artists will also be exhibiting at Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art in Vienna, Austria and at Cerealart in Philadelphia, PA.

The Annandale hotel, one of Sydney’s most popular live music venues converted their unused top level into an art space to host Dead Galaxy, an exhibition of collage works by Paul “Presser” Towner, drummer from Sydney band, Gerling. The band formed in 1993, with a music career spanning almost fifteen years and four studio albums, their success has included an international tour, performances alongside burlesque act, the Suicide Girls and collaborative tracks with Kylie Minogue and Solex. Dead Galaxy is Towner’s first art exhibition. DailyServing recently caught up with Presser to discuss the work.

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Artist Andrea Zittel held a holiday smock sale in Los Angeles last weekend. Her handmade, double wrap-around garments were available at Regen Projects on December 15th and at Young Art on December 16th. The smocks, meant to be attractive, utilitarian, and economical, are designed by Zittel but hand-sewn by collaborating artists. Zittel, who enterprises the A-Z Institute for Daily Living, has spent the last decade blurring the boundaries between daily life and artmaking. Most of her sculptures and works with fabric have both utilitarian and conceptual purposes. The A-Z Institute produces furniture and clothing, like the 8x5x7 ft living units meant to provide for a person’s every physical need and the seasonal uniforms that can be worn every day for months at a time. These functional works ideally make life more manageable and aesthetically pleasing for individuals while also ensuring that people have adequate personal space. Zittel, who is primarily represented by Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York and Regen Projects in LA, plans to open a smockshop in LA’s Chinatown sometime next year.