Yellowtrace Guide to Melbourne Design Week 2022.

Melbourne Design Week is back with its sixth edition from 17-27 March 2022, offering a dynamic program that responds to the theme ‘Design the world you want’. Two pillars—civic good and making good—provide a focused exploration of the main theme, with ‘civic good’ encouraging participants to think beyond the individual to serve the common interest and ‘making good’ exploring the impact of design beyond its functional or aesthetic impact.

For the first time, the retail sector will be significantly activated in a program of brand and showroom presentations that will further bring design week to a broader public. These include Cult Design, Living Edge, Space Furniture, VBOAustralia, Spence & Lyda, Halcyon Lake, Tait, Articolo and Great Dane Furniture, among others.

Another first in 2022 is the debut of the Melbourne Design Fair, which will showcase the best collectible contemporary design from over 100 Australian designers and makers. Presentations will be staged by leading commercial galleries, studios, design organisations and agencies in addition to a highlight exhibition of works for sale curated by the NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture.

Other 2022 program highlights include RMIT Design Hub and RMIT Design Archives—a central location combining several leading exhibitions during Design Week; MPavilion—hosting a range of events that celebrate the civic nature of design by focusing on the spaces and activities that form communities; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led Conversations presented by Agency Projects, providing an enriching experience for audiences to obtain deeper knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander design principles and their direct relationship to sustainable and responsible living, hosted via talks at Collingwood Yards; Zero Footprint Repurposing by Revival Projects x Grimshaw—The world’s first ‘free repurposing hub’ in the heart of Collingwood, a space where initiatives like recycling of materials will be facilitated on an unprecedented scale; NGV Architecture Commission POND[ER]—an installation selected as the winner of the NGV’s 2021 Architecture Commission, designed by Taylor Knights in collaboration with James Carey; not to mention a fairly huge satellite program of some 100 Exhibitions & Group Shows by emerging and established talent.

As always, we’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to as we bring you our ultimate guide to some 25 not-to-be-missed shows at Melbourne Design Week 2022.

We hope to see you there, supporting and cheering on our amazing design community. Go, Australian design, go!

This Yellowtrace Promotion is produced in partnership with NGV and Melbourne Design Week, with additional support from VBO Australia, Spence & Lyda, Halcyon Lake and Space Furniture. Like everything we do, our partner content is carefully researched and curated to maintain the utmost relevance to our audience. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Yellowtrace.

Plastic Rivers by Álvaro Catalán de Ocón.

Bibendum Sofa by Lucy Kurrein for Molinari Design.

Bibendum Armchair by Lucy Kurrein for Molinari Design.

Innate Desk by Jon Goulder for Spence & Lyda.

The designers and creatives from Futures Collective.

Futures Collective, Presented by Spence & Lyda.

Specially conceived for Melbourne Design Week 2022, Futures Collective at Villa Alba is a multi-faceted Sustainability narrative for our time.

Bringing together award-winning much-loved local designers Jon Goulder, Broached Commissions, Fiona Lynch, Authentic Design Alliance, and international mavericks Álvaro Catalán de Ocón and Lucy Kurrein; Spence & Lyda are doing what they do best—elevating the mindful spaces we inhabit with crafted pieces of exceptional beauty and meaning. The event will showcase the creators, makers and stories behind them, all with a distinctive view of the preciousness of time, talent and planet.

Futures Collective MDW22 runs from 17th to 26th March 2022 and is free to access during opening hours. Notable highlight events with the designers are ticketed and on limited availability, including a talk by Álvaro himself.

Click here for more information and to secure your spot.

Villa Alba Museum, 44 Walmer St, Kew

Concept sketch of the bespoke installation Light the World You Want at vboaustralia, courtesy of Marsha Golemac.

Light the World You Want: Improving the Human Experience through Viabizzuno’s Lighting Philosophies, Presented by vboaustralia.

An exhibition of Viabizzuno’s lighting philosophies through collaboration with local creatives, Light the world you want presents a series of exhibits demonstrating the brand’s unique ethos, allowing patrons to immerse themselves in the way each lighting principle can help design the world they want.

Applying light to surfaces, spaces and objects in a way that allows us to emotionally connect and attain a sense of wellbeing, vboaustralia’s laboratory of light is transformed into a gallery-like space to inspire, educate and influence the way we design and use light.

Art directed by the creative powerhouse Marsha Golemac, the entire showroom will be blacked out during the exhibition with only artworks by nine Australian artists carefully illuminated by Viabizzuno lighting.

The exhibition runs daily from 17th to 26th March. For more information, click here.

vboaustralia laboratory of light, 176 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne

Edelgrund ‘Alasht’ by Paolo Giordano and Ouwen Mori. Photo: Jonas Von Der Hude. Styling: Irina Graewe.

Forest by Halcyon Lake, features collections by Iranian rug maker Edelgrund. Photo: Jonas Von Der Hude. Styling: Irina Graewe.

Edelgrund ‘Forest’ was originally presented during Milan Design Week 2021 at Palazzo Lita.

Forest, Presented by Halcyon Lake.

Halcyon Lake’s Forest invites visitors to explore the woven textiles of Iranian rug maker Edelgrund through an evocative, visual and tactile experience. Conceptually designed by Italian architect Paolo Giordano and the late Chinese product designer Ouwen Mori, the installation was originally presented during Milan Design Week 2021 at Palazzo Lita.

Forest explores original Edelgrund designs expressed through a series of eighteen suspended vertical panels. Characterised by geometric compositions and warm colours, the poetic arrangement of pattern play is a sublime example of the power of ‘simple’.

Entirely handmade following age-old traditions, Edelgrund’s kilim rugs are woven by a small community of female artisans from the village of Alasht in the Mazandaran province of Iran. The exhibition highlights traditional Persian craftsmanship, sustainable production and ethical weaving practices: A world where inherited knowledge that has been passed down for generations is preserved; where traditional crafts coexist and merge with innovative interpretations and experimentations.

Forest runs daily from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm from 17th to 27th March. For more information, click here.

Black Cat Gallery, 420 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

Afternoon view of ‘Shaping our future’, features products from the Space collection as follows: B&B Italia Camaleonda sofa; Edra Cicladi side tables; Acerbis Storet drawers; Roll & Hill Atlas table lamp; Living Divani Offcut bookshelf; SP01 x Rometti accessories range; Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GMBH Around colours rug. Digital art by Tom Hancocks.

‘Shaping our future’, Presented by Space Furniture.

The value of design is not only judged through its functional or aesthetic impact, but on its environmental and social impact on the planet.

Space explores the Melbourne Design Week 2022 theme of ‘Design the world you want’ by taking a closer look at their design collection through the lens of ethical and sustainable practices. It’s the start of a journey that focuses on the role the company plays in business and as individuals in shaping the world we want.

Visitors are invited to explore a fictional apartment, with three curated rooms demonstrating current and future directions for brand partners B&B Italia and Kartell, who are developing materials and processes to transform their products, along with the steps Space is taking to review its own business systems on the path to becoming carbon neutral.

The apartment is accompanied by a photography series inspired by nature, with each room featuring a dreamscape that blurs the boundaries between fantasy and reality. From an endless meadow of flowers, the beauty of the universe lit up in the night sky and the calm meditation of the ocean, the optimism of each interior draws a parallel with new innovative technologies helping to shape a circular design future.

The exhibition runs daily from 17th to 27th March with the following opening times: Mon – Fri 9:30am – 5:30pm / Saturday 10am – 5pm / Sunday 11am – 5pm.

Space Melbourne, 629 Church Street, Richmond

James Lemon. Photo: Annika Kafcaloudisa.

Cordon Salon. Photo: Annika Kafcaloudis.

Brud Studia. Photo: Annika Kafcaloudis.

Vanity Screen by Christopher Boots. Photo: Christine Francis.

Parts Chandelier by Dale Hardiman. Photo: Andre Piguet.

Specchio 2022 by Luca Lettieri. Photo: Dean Toepfer.

Melbourne Design Fair.

​​The inaugural Melbourne Design Fair is a commercial showcase of limited edition, rare and one-of-a-kind collectable designs by 100 of Australia’s leading emerging and established contemporary designers and designer-makers. An initiative of the NGV in collaboration with the Melbourne Art Foundation, the Fair breaks new ground in the presentation, promotion and sale of collectible contemporary design in Australia and will offer audiences a unique cultural experience with all the design works presented available for purchase.

This key event is the first of its kind in Australia, and will showcase collectible contemporary design works across two platforms: PRESENT where galleries, design organisations, agencies and studios mount dedicated displays by the design creatives they represent, and SELECT, a curated exhibition featuring the best works by emerging and established designers and designer-makers from across Australia.

Melbourne Design Fair 2022 is a ticketed event, and runs for five days, from 16th to 20th March. For more information, and to book your ticket click here.

Warehouse 16, 28 Duke Street, Abbotsford

Self Portrait, Presented by Friends & Associates.

Focuses on the camaraderie in the Australian contemporary design discipline, Friends & Associates is an ongoing process-based project formed by Dale Hardiman and Tom Skeehan in 2017. This year the collective will present 22 self-portraits by Australian creatives, telling us who they are in this moment. Creatives were encouraged to think about their personal and professional selves, representing themselves in a single object.

Contributors include Jonathan Ben-Tovim, Kristin Burgham, Andrew Carvolth, Rosanna Ceravolo, Dale Hardiman and Mark Dineen, Danielle Brustman and Jonathon Ellery, Tom Fereday, Jordan Fleming, Ross Gardam, Jon Goulder and Henry Williams, Tom Hancocks, Den Holm, Claudia Lau, James Lemon, P.A.M. (Perks and Mini), Elliat Rich, Makiko Ryujin, Cordon Salon, Skeehan Studio, Simon Tops, ACV Studio, and Damien Wright.

For more information, click here.

RMIT Design Hub Gallery, Building 100, Victoria St, Carlton

Material Culture BTS. Photos: by Annika Kafcaloudis.

Material Culture, Presented by Marsha Golemac.

Curated by Marsha Golemac, this exhibition dedicated to ‘material culture’ attempts to expand on conversations surrounding why and how things are made, and what social, functional, or symbolic needs they satisfy.

Featuring the work of seventeen designers, makers and artists, the exhibition encourages participants to embrace traditional and ultra-modern techniques in object design. Each participant has created an object using a natural or cultural resource with a focus on tactility and materiality. Purposeful in nature, as defined by the participant, the object is a representation of the world they want to live in.

Participants include Abdé Nouamani, Peter D Cole, Fletcher Barns, Bianca Chang, Gabriel Aries Setiadi, Anna Pogossova, Jeremy Blincoe, Nicole Lawrence, Anke Kindle, Jacqueline Stojanović, Olivia Bossy, Tamara Maynes, Second Edition, Kasia Tons, Thomas Coward, and Livio Tobler.

For more information, click here.

At The Above, 198 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

Showcase Presented by New Assemblage. Photo: Annika Kafcaloudis.

Showcase Presented by New Assemblage. Photo: Annika Kafcaloudis.

Folk Costumes, Indo-Pacific Air by Guillermo Fernández-Abascal, Urtzi Grau, Copy nature office and Umi Graham.

Oigåll Projects, Presents Multiple Shows.

Evolving from MDW21, Oigåll MDW22 transforms into a design hub, with multiple activations celebrating local and international designers running across an 18-day program and three gallery spaces that transform into 3 alternate realities.

The largest show will take place in Room One — Showcase, Presented by New Assemblage, presenting emerging and established designers, artists and craftspeople from around Australia with their developed and experimental work. Participants include Elizabeth Lewis, SOZOU studio, Bobby Corica, Queena Grot, Belle Thierry, Marlo Lyda, Bel Williams, Livio Lucca Tobler, Jill Stevenson, Ryan Hoffmann Studio, Misseu, Drew Abrahamson, Georgia Weitenberg, Pirrie Studio, Josee Vesely-Manning, Dalton Stewart, Dalton Stewart, Billie Civello, and Julian Leigh May.

On show in Room Two is Folk Costumes, Indo-Pacific Air by Guillermo Fernández-Abascal, Urtzi Grau, Copy nature office and Umi Graham in Room Two. Room Three hosts BRICKS by THOMAS MAXAM Studio.

For more information head to oigallprojects.com and here.

Oigåll Projects, 122 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

Veiled and Column by Annie Paxton Studio. Photo: Annie Paxton.

Studio Abacus Lamp by Old Four Legs. Photo: Misha Duktova.

Vestige, Presented by Old Four Legs and Annie Paxton Studio.

Vestige is an exhibition that looks at the in-between, the underside, the shadow of making through the display of paired furniture forms—a series of positives and negatives. The paired forms sit together in a dialogue that interrogates the tension between what is made and the process that made it.

Reusing metal waste, the remnants of production become the core of production. These functional sculptures and unique one-off pieces of furniture trace the story between product and process. Old Four Legs and Annie Paxton Studio revisit the processes of making, celebrating slow production, the re-use of production waste, and the circular nature of making.

For more information, click here.

82 Johnston St, Fitzroy

Second Life #2, Presented by Mondopiero and Eugenie Kawabata.

Eugenie Kawabata’s Second Life #2 is an installation in collaboration with Mondopiero—a collection of forms inspired by the Ancient Greek amphora (vessels) as an intriguing window installation that challenges the perceptions of materiality and utility.

For more information, click here.

Mondopiero, 28 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

Pascale Gomes-Mcnabb and Tai Snaith. Photo: Marie Luise Skibbe.

Up To Us: Bringing Women Together to Design the World We Want, Presented by Sally Piskuric & Alison Lasek.

All progressive historic milestones, from the vote for women to marriage equality, were once considered idealistic fantasies. At a time with extreme social, political and ecological uncertainty, it’s instinctive for designers to dream of utopian solutions.

Up to Us brings together women from a range of disciplines and asks them to choose a female practitioner to collaborate with. Participators include Beci Orpin, Adele Winteridge, Evi O, Jo Hook, Josie Young, Katherine Kemp, Tai Snaith, Kate Stokes, Pascale Gomes-McNabb, Amanda Dziedzic, Fatuma & Laurinda Ndenzako, Mirella Arapian, Tea Uglow, Ella Reweti, Jess Lilley, Crystal Fong, Courtney Holm, Robyn Brazenall, Amy Mills, Lily Gloria and more.

For more information, click here.

Le Space Gallery, 1 Mater St, Collingwood

Photos: Bobby Corica.

Fond, Presented by Tantri Mustika and Megan McNeill.

An installation of handcrafted objects by ceramicist Tantri Mustika and textile designer Megan McNeill, Fond reimagines traditional domestic interiors with dream-like qualities.

This collaboration is a take on a world where living spaces aren’t filled with the mass-produced—instead, it’s a place where objects spark a connection to the makers and their materials and processes while fostering a greater appreciation between the audience and handcrafted products.

For more information, click here.

Tantri Mustika Ceramics, Collingwood Yards, 35 Johnston St, Collingwood

Mikaela Stafford and Zachary Frankel. Photo: Charlie Hawks

Tessellate, Presented by Zachary Frankel and Mikaela Stafford.

Merging physical and virtual spaces, Zachary Frankel and Mikaela Stafford’s works ask us what the future holds. Applying new and emerging technologies, and integrating industrial processes and materiality with 3D motion graphics software, they attempt to challenge conventional ideas of consumption by utilising waste to create products of high value—merging the liminal space between physical and virtual environments to create a hyper-reality.

The exhibition will be held in an unconventional domestic space on Johnston street, showcasing a series of Zac’s innovative and sculptural pieces alongside a surreal and animated interpretation of line and form by Mikaela.

For more information, click here.

103 Johnston St, Collingwood

Anna Varendorff or ACV for After Hours.

After Hours, Presented by Volker Haug Studio.

Following the raging success of the debut 2021 edition, Volker Haug Studio will once again host After Hours—an exhibition of side projects by creatives of “the work we do when we’re not ‘at work”. Showcasing creations by a select group of multi-disciplinary artists and designers—including Edition Office in collaboration with Alexi Freeman, Kennedy Nolan in collaboration with Amanda Oliver, Khai Liew, Michael Gittings, Pascale Gomes-McNabb, Morgan Hickinbotham / LAAP, and H.B. Peace—this exhibition explores the artistic projects and passions that live outside their main bodies of work.

For more information, click here.

Volker Haug Studio, 2-12 St Phillip St, Brunswick East

Kouros Maghsoudi, Chair, 2020.

Dalton Stewart, Rammed Earth Table, 2021.

Vital Pleasures, Presented by It’s Nice Inside.

Vital Pleasures is a group exhibition of physical, digital, and paper design works from a diverse range of furniture designers from Australia and the USA. The exhibition offers a platform for designers to question what it means to design and create in a world of uncertain futures.

After being held in one of the longest consecutive lockdowns of any city in the world, Vital Pleasures aims to re-unite locals on the lands of the Kulin Nation to the lost pleasures of connectivity. The exhibition addresses the many moods in which designers have continued to work and stay connected through the dreariness and isolation of lockdown, highlighting that design always has the capacity to re-instate pleasure and connectivity.

Participants include Billie Civello, Dalton Stewart, Tom Hancocks, Tayla Ross, Casey Chong, Kouros Maghsoudi, Jordan Gogos, Jack Alexander Halls, Bianca Censori, Nusi Quero and Julian Leigh May.

For more information, click here.

250 Johnston St, Abbotsford

Home Run Series 2022 by Caro Pattle. Art Direction: Marsha Golemac. Photo: Pier Carthew.

Improper Structures, presented by Eliza Tiernan and Josephine Briginshaw.

‘Improper Structures’ revisits everyday objects within interior spaces. Eight contemporary makers working across ceramic, textile, furniture and glass disciplines eschew notions of pure functionality to engender connection, play, intimacy, comfort and reward. This is the second project by curatorial duo Josephine Briginshaw and Eliza Tiernan and is a continued celebration of a melding of art, craft and design practices. Their new exhibition follows the 2021 debut of ‘Preliminary Structures’, which explored the possibilities of moulding and casting techniques across ceramic and glass mediums.

Other participants in the show include Anni Hagberg, Caro Pattle, Hannah Gartside, Anthea Kemp, Liam Fleming, Makiko Ryujin, Michael Gittings and Thomas Lentini.

For more information head over to improperstructures.com and here.

​​Creo Gallery, 34 Cremorne Street, Cremorne

Objects 2022, Presented by Olivia Bossy.

Sydney designer Olivia Bossy presents an exhibition of new lighting and furniture, placing contemporary pieces alongside historical ones from Geoffrey Hatty’s collection. As we introduce more objects into the world, there has to be some thought as to how they are fabricated, the meaning they may carry, and how to surpass the typologies that result in trend-driven monosyllabic spaces. This exhibition brings together the notion of ‘buy well or buy second hand’ while celebrating how these should coexist.

For more information, click here.

Geoffrey Hatty Applied Arts, 1 Chapel St, Cremorne

Deep Fake/ Moon Garden, Presented by Josee Vesely-Manning.

Uneasy utopias and anthropocenic space gardens are central to this sculptural installation: landscape design for uninhabitable planets, interior design for planetary greenhouses and strange materialisms which engage with actant matter and enlivened non-human forms. Of central interest is how our architectural and design past has envisaged the future.

Countercultural aesthetics and propositions, such as Ettore Sottsass’ The Planet as Festival (1972-73) or the cosmic sets of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain (1973) and specifically a nostalgia on how we remember the future, all inform this project.

Participants include Ashisha Cunningham, Gabriella Ferrante and Josee Vesely-Manning. Lighting design and fabrication by Darcy Jones.

For more information, click here.

Microluxe, 28 Johnston St, Fitzroy

Barbera Studio 2022 BCE – 2022 CE, Presented by Daniel Barbera.

Barbera Studio presents a historical design narrative, held within the Bates Smart Gallery, reflecting on the process of sand casting that hasn’t changed much in the last 5000 years. Using the same process of sand casting of their counterparts from the last five centuries, the activation highlights the studio’s material evolution and production processes. This interpretation of old BCE minerals and material exploration includes bronze, ceramics, and glass, while highlighting the studio’s selected finished products.

For more information, click here.

Bates Smart Gallery, 1 Nicholson St, East Melbourne

Corner Suite II: Art, Furniture and Furnishings, Presented by No Order Market, Shifting Worlds.

Cool girl design and fashion mecca, No Order Market, presents Corner Suite, an honest and exciting vision for sustainable, thoughtful and cheerful design. Blurring the lines between domestic and commercial presentation, the retail space will trade their usual plinths and white rooms for a more leisurely and comforting setting.

Curated by Elle Ross and Kirra Scotland, the exhibition will have works from emerging and established designers and makers such as furniture by Another Bureau of Design, ceramics by Tanika Jellis and handmade quilts by Britta Rouse to show and sell with new designs and unseen works created specifically for the event.

The exhibition will be open alongside Shifting Worlds, Monday-Saturday 12-5 PM.

For more information, click here.

No Order Market, 187-193 Elizabeth St, Melbourne

Photo: Derek Swalwell.

2021 NGV Architecture Commission: POND[ER] by Taylor Knights with James Carey, Presented by NGV.

This architectural installation with its bright pink pond brings to mind Australia’s inland salt lakes. The project is the winner of the NGV’s 2021 Architecture Commission in the Grollo Equiset Garden at NGV International, conceived by Melbourne based architecture firm Taylor Knights in collaboration with artist James Carey.

Pond[er] pays homage to Sir Roy Grounds’ open-air courtyards in the original design of NGV International and comprises two key design elements: a body of native plants and a body of water.

Find it outside the NGV, or read more here.

National Gallery of Victoria, Saint Kilda Road, Melbourne

Leigh Bowery, The Metropolitan c. 1988
cotton, rayon, leather, sequins, metal, paint; (a) 184.0 cm (centre back), 67.0 cm (sleeve length) (dress), (b) 125.0 cm (centre back), 77.0 cm (waist, flat) (outer petticoat), (c) 125.0 cm (centre back), 112.0 cm (waist, flat) (inner petticoat), (d) 109.0 × 8.0 cm irreg. (belt), (e) 50.0 × 8.0 cm (neck belt), (f-g) 21.0 × 12.0 cm irreg.(each) (gloves), (h) 91.0 cm (outer circumference), 19.0 cm (height), 23.5 cm (width) (helmet), (i-j) 24.0 cm (height) (each), 12.0 cm (width) (each), 26.0 cm (length) (each) (shoes); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1999; © Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Peter Tully, Bench seat 1985
painted wood, plastic, metal, synthetic fur, anodised aluminium, vinyl, mirror, transparent synthetic polymer resin, metallic holographic film, (other materials); 88.5 × 108.5 × 49.5 cm (variable); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Gift of Murray Kelly through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2018; © Courtesy of the copyright owner, Merlene Gibson

Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection, Presented by NGV.

Queer shines a light on the NGV Collection to examine and reveal the queer stories works of art can tell. This exhibition of works from the NGV spans historical eras and diverse media including painting, drawing, photography, decorative arts, fashion, video, sculpture, and design and explores queerness as an expression of sexuality and gender, a political movement, a sensibility, and as an attitude that defies fixed definition.

Rather than attempting to provide a definitive history of queer art, the exhibition explores the NGV Collection from a queer perspective, presenting and interpreting queer concepts and stories. Many works in the exhibition are by artists who identify as queer; some are by artists who lived in times when such identification was not possible; and some works are not by queer artists but have a connection to queer histories. Queer includes approximately 400 artworks from antiquity to the present day, making the exhibition the most historically expansive thematic presentation of its kind ever presented by an Australian art institution.

For more information, click here.

National Gallery of Victoria, Saint Kilda Road, Melbourne

Left: Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Baratjala, 2019, earth pigment and recycled print toner on Stringybark (Eucalyptus sp.); 90.0 x 115.0 cm; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2020; © Noŋgirrŋa Marawili Marawili, courtesy of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala. Middle: Mulkun Wirrpanda, Ŋäḏi ga Guṉdirr, 2020; earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus sp.); 201.0 x 90.0 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2020; © Mulkun Wirrpanda, courtesy of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala. Right: Dhambit Munuŋgurr, Bees at Gäṉgän, 2019; synthetic polymer paint on Stringybark (Eucalyptus sp.); 194.0 x 117.0 cm; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Purchased with funds supported by the Orloff Family Charitable Trust, 2020; © Dhambit Munuŋgurr, courtesy of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala.

Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala, Presented by NGV.

Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala is an exhibition that celebrates the NGV’s extraordinary collection of work by Yolŋu women artists from the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre (Buku), in North-East Arnhem Land. Buku is the Indigenous community-run art centre located in Yirrkala, a small Aboriginal community, approximately 700 kilometres east of Darwin.

For more than two decades the NGV has been acquiring important works on bark by women artists from Buku, who before 2000 seldom painted on bark or made ḻarrakitj (painted hollow poles). This is an important exhibition that brings together great singular master artists and shares their important stories with a Melbourne audience.

For more information, click here.

National Gallery of Victoria, Saint Kilda Road, Melbourne

A Sequence Of Things by John Wardle. Photo: Peter Whyte.

Light House by Simon Lloyd.

Systems Vases by John Wardle & Simon Lloyd. Photo: Trevor Mein.

Red Oxide Dish by Simon Lloyd.

Relatively Useful, Present by Heide, Museum of Modern Art; John Wardle & Simon Lloyd.

John Wardle and Simon Lloyd have designed twenty five items of furniture, ceramics and objects that will be presented at McGlashan and Everist’s Heide II at the Heide Museum of Modern Art. Showcasing a fascinating exposition of the skills of makers from Melbourne and Hobart, the two designers describe the experience as the ‘gradients of collaboration’ as the works have been designed both individually or collectively through many conversations and a platform of shared drawings.

For more information, click here.

Heide Museum of Modern Art, Templestowe Road, Bulleen

Conglomerate Vases.

Chrystal Rimmer, This Bleeding Heart. 65x50x50.

Sharefolder Fantasy, Presented by Dale Hardiman and Mark Dineen.

Sharefolder Fantasy is a new exhibition by Australian designer Dale Hardiman and American artist and designer Mark Dineen. Over a period of two months, Dale and Mark invited anyone and everyone from around the world to make a vase from any material they could source. Participants could take one minute or two months to make the work before uploading it to a dedicated website. The goal was to provide both participants and audiences an opportunity to observe the inflections of local materials, cultures, and customs on work from around the world.

Sharefolder Fantasy is a digital exhibition and can be viewed via sharefolderfantasy.com.

Shrine Table With Bottle.

Shrine Healthy With Apple.

DESIGNWORK 06 Daniel To and Emma Aiston: ShrineTime, Presented by Sophie Gannon Gallery.

Design studio DANIEL EMMA presents Shrine Time, a solo exhibition in an annual series of exhibitions by Sophie Gannon Gallery. The project explores the concept of memory—the making and preservation of memory; collective memories and cultural and personal identity; and how we deal with grief, loss and recollection. These small memorials allow for contemplation and act as reminders of people, places and periods in time of personal importance. The works also act as a home in which memories can be connected to, reflected upon, respected and celebrated.

For more information, click here.

Sophie Gannon Gallery, 2 Albert St, Richmond

MAU, Presented by ACMI.

Visionary thinker, uber optimist and creative madman Bruce Mau takes centre stage in a new illuminating doco by Benji & Jono Bergmann. In their articulate portrait of the visionary thinker, the Bergmanns interview a veritable who’s who of the design community including architects extraordinaire Rem Koolhaas and Bjarke Ingels, MoMA Senior Curator Paolo Antonelli and Mau’s partner and collaborator Bisi Williams. The resulting film juxtaposes micro design with the macro, the seen with the unseen and— its very core—the profoundly personal with the professional.

For more information, head over to the ACMI website or click here.

ACMI Cinemas, Level 2, Federation Square, Melbourne

Lumina Flora: Media Architecture + Biophilic Design, Presented by REELIZE.STUDIO.

Opening at the newly launched concept display room REELIZE.SPACE, Lumina Flora is a collaborative experiential exhibition and shopfront activation that delves into Biophilia and Media Architecture through Media Art and Experiential Design applications. The exhibition investigates the unprecedented potential of merging media technologies with horticulture to extend our experience of the built environment.

An immersive light and botanical installation is the centrepiece of the exhibition, best viewed through the display room’s shopfront after dark.

For more information, click here.

REELIZE.SPACE, 95 Johnston Street, Collingwood

[Images courtesy of the designers and press office. Photography credits as noted.]