Artnotes NSW contributor

This month's Artnotes NSW column is compiled by:

Daniel Mudie Cunningham: dmc2502@bigpond.net.au

Isidro Blasco at Dominik Mersch Gallery

Isidro Blasco, Side building with hydrant, 2008, C-print and wood. In Group show 09: Out of their comfort zone, at Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney, until 7 March. Image courtesy the artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery. www.dominikmerschgallery.com

Sydney’s ARIs mark the spot

The Match Box Project, the brainchild of artists Leanne and Naomi Shedlezki, this month launches an online and printed map guide to over 20 of Sydney’s Artist-Run-Initiatives (ARIs). The launch is supported by a series of Match Box Project exhibitions, People to People, Place to Place, in 3 of the ARIs which will also become tour destinations, complete with participating artists, ARI directors and loads of local knowledge. The exhibition dates/venues are: 1 to 29 March, SLOT, Alexandria; 12 to 24 March, GAFFA GALLERY, Surry Hills; and 19 to 29 March, AT THE VANISHING POINT, Newtown. www.matchboxprojects.com

Dennis Darzacq at the Australian Centre for Photography

Dennis Darzacq, Untiled 04, 2007, digital print. In Dennis Darzacq: Hyper at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, from 12 March to 7 April. www.acp.org.au

Disappearing acts

Legendary Columbian artist Óscar Muñoz is presenting Biografías at the Art Gallery of NSW, a series that examines the body and its disappearance. The recurring disappearance of people in Colombia is referenced through silkscreen portraits where coal dust is forced through the screen to float on water, which becomes unrecognisable as it disappears down a drain. Until 14 June. www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Lest We Forget at Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery

Cherie Johnson, Lest We Forget (detail), 2008, fired and incised terracotta. yapang marruma: making our way(stories of the stolen) examines how past government policy has affected the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through oral histories, site specific art, photographs and objects. Showing at Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery until 15 March. Image courtesy the artist. www.lakemac.nsw.gov.au  

Salad Days at the National Art School

Monika Behrens, Tasmanian Tiger Bounty, 2008, oil on canvas. In Salad Days 2009: Monika Behrens & Melody Willis, from the National Art School Artists in Residence program. In Gallery2 National Art School, Sydney, until 28 March. www.nas.edu.au

School of hard knocks no more

New South Wales Education Minister Verity Firth recently announced that the long-suffering National Art School (NAS) will finally be independent of the TAFE system. Its new identity will be as a public company with the Ministers for Arts and Education acting as shareholders. For many years the school has battled for autonomy, living under a cloud of uncertainty after plans for mergers with Macquarie University and then the College of Fine Arts were both eventually scrapped. Recently appointed head Professor Anita Taylor, director of the Centre for Drawing at the University of the Arts, London, takes over from former director Bernard Ollis in April.