Art news

Artwork by London illustrator Katy Smail

Next week idiosyncratic idol of popular culture, Philip Brophy, will continue his iconoclastic investigations into the body, sex, sound and film with VOX, a multimedia installation at Melbourne’s Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces. In continuity with Brophy’s prolific cross-disciplinary output that has incorporated film, art, sound and cultural critique, VOX will address the contemporary ‘Romantic Comedy’ in a visceral and gender-bending manner. – JD

If you're in Sydney check out the work of arachnid obsessed French artist Louise Bourgeois at Kaliman Gallery from August 30th. The spiders that populate her work represent Bourgeois' mother- but not in a scary sense- rather they symbolise labor, protection and giving of the maternal figure.

DRS CREW was spawned in Sydney by PLAZM in 1999 and has since snowballed to become a thriving collective of 15 artists. Their new (and appropriately titled) Melbourne show is a celelebration of friendship, co-ordinated vandalism and many schooey's down the pub. Showcasing works by Que, Skael, Mepher, Numskull, Baker, Radio, Tony and Army, they apply their skills to everything from painted canvas to projected animations, vector prints and stuffed toys.

In Sonia Leber and David Chesworth’s Almost Always Everywhere Apparent, exhibition goers become overwhelmed by a sonorous and prison-like super sized structure. Within its walk-through environment, viewer/listeners are subjected to a surround soundtrack of grunts, groans, moans, utterances, cries and choral outbursts, all accumulating in what is indeed a compelling exploration of hierarchical systems and social control. – JD

If you find yourself in Copenhagen over the next few days and fancy a little reprieve from the fashion week fallout and Henrik Vibskov scarves adorning the necks of all and sundry, visit The Room Project in Nikolaj Kunsthalle. Photographer Annette Merrild has taken to peering into middle class living rooms across the globe, revealing both a common thread (strangely TV) and latent differences – a picture of humanity without a single subject in the frame.