Australian artist James Guppy uses superb technique to render a world of magic realism. If you’re into labels, try ‘Postmodern Fetishism’. His art reveals the private dreams and nightmares of life in the twenty first century.

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James Francis Drinkwater is an Australian artist living and working in Berlin with his wife and fellow artist, Lottie Consalvo Drinkwater. His work ranges from oil on canvas to assemblage, and his compositions hint at a nostalgic, cubist style. Drinkwater’s body of work is a superbly executed collection, no doubt just the beginning for this young Aussie talent.

The Host was recently presented in Poland where strange robots danced and twirled around the large warehouse space. They have an unnerving presence, which is inhanced by a 1950s sci-fi soundtrack and automated lighting, including moments of darkness. Marynowsky, the Australian artist behind it all, purposely gives the robots an abstracted human form, which adds to the menacing atmosphere and the paranoia created by the robots.

Paper and the Blade is a beautiful papercut exhibition by Perth-based artist, Nia May. With more than 40 intricate designs, the show creates a two-dimensional world of foxes, teapots, skeletons, birds and little girls lost.

In her words, May makes them ‘by using a sharp knife while drinking lots of tea. And my house is often filled with confetti’. The show is on until October 5 at Sweets Workshop in Summer Hill.

Expressing an air of freedom, Sydney artist Lachie Hinton’s work explodes with colour and personality as he drops all limitations to ‘deviate from standard and expectation’. Combining charcoal, ink and acrylic, Hinton breathes life into his caricatures’, creating quirky, eccentric and beautiful subjects.

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The Fellows and the Blondies is Kate McCarthy’s new exhibition. McCarthy uses childhood memories and child-like spontaneity to create her painterly painted pieces. She mentions the 1970s series of Sesame Street among her influences.

Her work reminds me of boiled lollies and patchwork quilts. Kate’s next solo show opens on September 17 at 19Karen Gallery in the Gold Coast.

What do you get if you take an architect and a classic ballerina? A Body Architect. That’s the official title of Lucy McRae, an Australian girl trained in both fields, who invents and builds structures on the skin that re-shape the human silhouette.

Swedish pop artist Robyn is a huge fan, and has tapped into McRae’s unusual talent to create the architectural fashion statement made in her Indestructible video clip [watch above]. The tubes of flowing coloured liquid wrapped around Robyn’s body make for a super impressive form of armor.

This isn’t the first time Robyn has used McRae’s help on a project: the dress (that word is being used very loosely) worn on Robyn’s Body Talk album cover is also a product of McRae’s talent.

Australian artist Jun Gil Park has been carving drawings into bananas lately, letting the natural oxidation of the scraped skin bring the image out.

People are always banging on about ‘finding yourself’ when you go traveling. But when you’re living in hostels and greyhound stations, the reality is that mostly the only time you’re alone is on the toilet. So after traveling for five months, I rented a room in Calgary and spent most of two months in solitude, painstakingly working away on this series of self-portraits. I still haven’t found myself.

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We love this graphite on watercolour paper illustration by young Australian artist Dominique Merven.

Nick Thompson is an artist, designer and drector from Melbourne. He has produced work for major international brands like MTV, Red Bull, Nike, Monster, Pioneer and Channel V. He is also the founder of The Drop.

I was lucky enough to catch self-taught Melbourne artist Ghost Patrol’s latest exhibition recently, and it was magical. Ghost Patrol’s work ranges form fine ink drawing, street art, and commissioned murals to soft sculpture.

Ghost Patrol’s work is playful, yet slightly sinister, and is full of forest imagery, hybrid animals, and magical children wearing capes. Not to mention some of the creatures he has created, which if you look closely, are made up of thousands of tiny colourful trees.

I love the sweeping use of bold colour and the fragile, melancholic doll faces that permeate the work of Australian artist, Marie Larkin.

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I love the black and white portrait work of Australian illustrator, Anthony Hayes, whose artwork has adorned vinyl toys, shoes and the walls, no doubt, of his grateful friends.

It’s great when you meet a good solid all-round cool person, and when you’re asked ‘when did you guys meet?’, you can’t remember. That’s because it doesn’t matter, you just liked each other straight away. The same goes for Twenty Eleven’s art and his observations. He’s got an individual style, but when I first saw it, it reminded me of Basquiat.

Australian artist Rebecca Harstein paints tumor-like blobs crawling across beautiful landscapes and getting intimate with naked ladies. Apparently, these blobs used to be unicorns. In the artist’s own words, ‘The blob explores the world and has many adventures. Napoleon is dwarfed by his majesty’.

We’re fans of the work of 17 year-old self-taught illustrator Saad Moosajee, who has recently updated his website with an assortment of new projects.

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London-based artist Kareena Zerefos, originally from Sydney, creates wispy, delicate images that depict the innocent and magical connection children have with animals.

The eyes in Australian artist Justin Lee William’s mixed-media paintings, which seem to be composed in a meandering, stream-of-consciousness way, give me the creeps in the best possible way. I especially love his watercolors.

Melbourne-based artist Beci Orpin uses a kaleidoscope of colors to create drawings and paper collages of charming mystical characters.

Mainly focusing on design for other companies, she does, every now and then, partake in showing off her own ideas. In her newest exhibition— ’3 of a kind’ — Orpin creates silhouettes that have a sort of Scandinavian folk art flare to them. Her work makes me want to grab a box of crayons and have an arts and craft party. Expect rainbow colored Invitations soon.