Melbourne Now: NGV’s History-making Exhibition With 200+ Victorian-based Artists Now Open.

Installation view of Taree Mackenzie’s work Pepper’s ghost effect, circles, 4 variations 2023 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of Esther Stewart’s work The space has been created for something to happen; 1:2 2019 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of Community Hall at the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of Troy Emery’s work Mountain climber 2022 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of Vessels on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of John Nixon’s works on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of No House Style on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

The second edition of the ground-breaking exhibition Melbourne Now at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia highlights the extraordinary work of more than 200 Victorian-based artists, designers, studios and firms whose practices are shaping the cultural landscape of Melbourne and Victoria.

The free exhibition features more than 200 ambitious and thought-provoking projects on display, including more than 70 world-premiere works commissioned especially by the NGV for this major presentation.

Bold in scope and scale, Melbourne Now highlights the vibrant creativity of local emerging, mid-career and senior practitioners and collectives—including many who are presenting at the NGV for the very first time.

The exhibition traverses all levels of The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, including contemporary interventions across the Australian Art and First Nations permanent collection displays, and highlights a diverse range of contemporary disciplines across fashion, jewellery, painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, video, virtual reality, performance, photography, printmaking, product design and publishing.

Some of the exhibition highlights include the Design Wall, which returns with a large-scale installation celebrating consumer products designed in Melbourne over the past decade, including guitars, ladders, pillows, luggage, motorbikes and more. Representing 25 Melbourne design studios, the Design Wall brings together designers, companies and brands that are shaping the way we live, work and play.

An Icon Reimagined: 'Temple of Boom' Architecture Commission Unveiled at NGV International.

This year's project is an evocative reimagining of the global architectural icon, The Parthenon. Designed by Adam Newman and Kelvin Tsang of NWMN, the structure will gradually...

No House Style assembles leading and emerging Melbourne-based furniture designers and architects whose contrasting styles are emblematic of the city’s creative spirit. Refuting mainstream design trends, these designers and architects are helping to establish a picture of contemporary Melbourne architecture and design that is independent, original, plural and expressive of contemporary issues and values.

Part playground and part photobooth, James Lemon’s participatory work Swarming invites audiences of all ages to learn through play about the importance and fragility of bee life in our ecosystems—and to human survival. Combining ceramics, painting, textiles and digital media, Swarming is an ultraviolet hive of activity and features interactive soft pupae forms.

Slippery Images challenges the representational use of photography through the work of 12 artists whose exciting images reveal the loose, fluid and slippery aspects of the photographic medium.

Also on display is Troy Emery’s largest sculptural and most ambitious work to date, standing over three metres high. In this textile-based work, bright-coloured pom-poms are assembled and pinned over an underlying form to create a large-scale feline sculpture. The work explores humankind’s relationship with animals and their historical representations in museums and in taxidermied form.

Melbourne Now is on display from 24 March to 20 August 2023 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Fed Square, Melbourne. Free entry. Further information is available via the NGV website.

Tatiana Bilbao's Large-scale Installation Opens at NGV.

The inaugural MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission opened last week, unveiling a large-scale installation by world-leading Mexican...

Installation view of No House Style on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of Slippery Images on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Sean Fennessy.

Installation view of Atong Atem’s work on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

Installation view of Mia Boe’s For the angels in paradise 2023 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Sean Fennessey.

Installation view of Meagan Streader’s Sky Whispers 2023 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Sean Fennessey.

Installation view of James Lemon’s work Swarming 2023 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August 2023. Image: Tom Ross.

[Images courtesy of the NGV. Photography by Tom Ross, Sean Fennessy and Peter Bennetts.]