“Girl Parade” is a collaborative exhibition involving a series of international artists. The upcoming exhibition is to be held at the Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington, and will explore various experiences and issues involving women. Through the use of photography and video art practices, the artists delve into the fears of aging, bittersweet encounters with motherhood and female sexual desire. “>Belinda Mason‘s digitally altered inclusions reflect the artificial nature of woman’s obsession with beauty, while Pilar Mata Dupont & Tarryn Gill’s collaborative efforts focus on the use of pin-up girls as war propaganda. The exhibition also includes works by Japanese artist Tomoko Sawada, US Photographer Kelli Connell and German-Australian, Tatjana Plitt. The exhibition will be accompanied by “Twirling the Baton for Post, Post-Feminism,” a gallery talk given by some of the contributing artists and curator, Bec Dean.

Currently on view at The Lab 101 Gallery in Culver City, Los Angeles is the exhibition

Replace ‘Please’ with ‘Fast’ ‘Thank you’ with ‘Good,’ featuring works by Australian-born artists, Anthony Lister, and Mark Whalen aka Kill Pixie along with San Diego-based artist, Kelsey Brookes. This will be the first time the three artists have exhibited all together, sharing their interest in the urban environment and the use of cultural and illustrative iconography in their work. Kelsey Brookes lives in Southern California, works as a both a painter and illustrator and is currently represented by the Lazarides Gallery in London. Mark Whalen is an artist living and working in Sydney, Australia, who has roots as a street artist. Now utilizing more delicate approaches, the artist still delivers the same uncompromising approach to his art making. Anthony Lister is an Australian-born painter has exhibited extensively through London, Europe, Australia, and the US. The artist explores his obvious childhood inspirations of comic characters in new ways to expose the underbelly of society. This exhibition marks The Lab 101 Gallery’s third anniversary in their current space.

On view until January 2008 at SITE in Santa Fe in New Mexico is a group show titled “The Disappeared / Los Desaparecidos.” The exhibition contains work by 27 contemporary artists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Colombia and Guatemala. In the last decades of the twentieth century, disappear was used as a transitive verb to identify people who were kidnapped, tortured and killed by their own governments during the rule of military dictatorships. These artists’ lives have been overwhelmingly affected by the politics in Latin America. Some of them worked in the resistance, while others had parents or siblings who disappeared and others were forced into exile. The youngest were born into the aftermath of those dictatorships. Below is the list of artists contributing to the show: Marcelo Brodsky, Luis Camnitzer, Juan Manuel Echavarria, Nelson Leirner, Sara Maneiro, Ivan Navarro, Oscar Munoz, Luis Gonzales Palma, Ana Tiscornia and Fernando Traverso.

Indigenous Australian artist, Destiny Deacon presents issues of fanatical patriotism within her current exhibition “Whacked,” at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Within the confrontational series, Deacon addresses misconceptions and stereotypes associated with racial prejudice. While exploring her fascination with new media practices including photography and video, Deacon also utilizes more traditional art forms, creating carpets and cushion covers imprinted with the sinister faces of her disturbing characters. Reflecting on recent events such as the racially motivated 2005 Cronulla riots, Deacon through her use of black humor, reflects on the increased sense of xenophobia caused by the fear of terrorism. Deacon’s contemporary art practice often deals with issues of social stigma faced by Indigenous Australians, while the inclusion of black dolls as kitsch representations of Aboriginal people symbolize the way in which they have been silenced and forced into submission. The dolls often act as substitutes for real people and are able to both depersonalize and globalize the issues projected in her art. She has showcased her works on an international scale, becoming the only Australian artist to be selected for Documeta II in Germany, 2002.

Artist Michael Scoggins is currently presenting a series of new text-based works in an exhibition titled “My Good, My Evil” at Freight and Volume in New York City. This will be the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Scoggins signature hand-drawn notebook paper works are massive in scale, up to 67″ x 51″, and are carefully crafted to look as if they were simply ripped from a child’s notebook. The artist’s intentional sophomoric qualities offer a humor that is able to at once investigate social issues of race, American politics and childhood love. After a recent relocation from Savannah, GA, Scoggins now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. The artist received an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. This year Scoggins has exhibited with Adler & Co. in San Francisco and with D3 Projects in Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA.

“Don’t Mess with Texas” is a new exhibition on view at the Nathan Larramendy Gallery in Ojai, California. The show features the work of seven emergent Texas-based female artists including Amy Blakemore, Kelli Connell, Libby Black, Zoe Charlton, Virginia Fleck, Francesca Fuchs and Laura Lark. The exhibition aims to highlight Texas as a place of geographic isolation, while simultaneously investigating female identity through the region. Photographer Kelli Connell creates images that are constructed using Photoshop, utilizes herself as the primary subject and explores the idea of truth as she questions her own sexuality and gender role. Artist Libby Black makes life-size sculptures and paintings which she states examines “issues of class and expectations of perfections,” through brand-name luxury items constructed out of paper, paint and hot glue. The exhibition successfully represents a diverse look at the Lone Star state today through a multitude of artistic perspectives and media.

Opening next week at the Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York City will be “Focused Aggregate Intensity,” an exhibition of new drawings and paintings by NYC-based artist Will Yackulic. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in NYC, following successful shows at Gregory Lind Gallery and the Adobe Backroom Gallery, both in San Francisco. Yackulic has developed a geometric vocabulary that is built with a typewriter, gouache, watercolor and India ink, causing the visual plane to vibrate through optically intense patterning. The dominant spheres in the work pulsate through thousands of marks allowing the two-dimensional space to operate as a three-dimensional form. Often the work resonates as snow on an old TV screen or as planets floating in an indeterminate galaxy of information. The artist has participated in several U.S. and international group exhibitions including works at fa projects in London and Zentral Buro in Berlin, and received a BFA in Painting from the State University of New York at Purchase. Yackulic’s works have been featured in both Modern Painters and Artforum Magazines.