Dynamic Program Coming up for NGV’s Spring/Summer Season 2022-23

The NGV’s Spring/Summer Season will enliven NGV International and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV  Australia throughout the warmer months with a dynamic program of exhibitions, collection displays, events and more.  With the summer blockbuster exhibition, Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, as its centrepiece, the season  presents never-before-seen world-premiere works by leading contemporary artists, as well as major exhibitions that  examine popular artists and artworks in exciting and unexpected ways.

Celebrating the legacy of one of the late twentieth century’s most acclaimed fashion designers, Alexander McQueen:  Mind, Mythos, Muse is the first partnership between the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) and the NGV. The  exhibition features more than 110 designs by McQueen alongside over 70 works of art, including painting, sculpture,  photography and decorative arts. The juxtaposition of garments and artworks highlights McQueen’s creative process  and many inspirations, as well as offering audiences an opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation of his artistic legacy  today. Alexander McQueen will be launched on Saturday 10 December 2022 with the highly anticipated event, the NGV Gala.

Richard Mosse’s world-premiere moving image work Broken Spectre is a powerful response to the devastating and  ongoing impact of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. Broken Spectre is presented across an immersive 20- metre panorama widescreen and depicts three visually arresting narratives that were filmed over three years in  remote parts of the Amazon Basin. Each cinematic narrative shifts in scale and medium – from satellite to microscopic  imagery – in order to draw attention to a distinct perspective of this urgent environmental issue. Premiering at NGV  International on 30 September 2022, the work has been co-commissioned by the NGV, VIA Art Fund, the Westridge  Foundation, and Serpentine Galleries in London, and was created in collaboration with cinematographer and editor  Trevor Tweeten and composer Ben Frost.

Jewellery and Body Adornment from the NGV Collection, opening 27 August 2022, highlights the power of one of  the oldest known artforms. Featuring an exquisite selection of works from antiquity to the present day, the display presents jewellery making traditions and body adornment practices across different material, cultural and geographical  contexts. Reflecting the breadth and formal variety of body adornment, the multidisciplinary works on display have  been sourced across the NGV’s many collecting areas, including Indigenous Art, Antiquities, Decorative Art,  Australian Art, Asian Art, Fashion and Textiles, and Contemporary Design and Architecture.

From 6 October 2022, The Global Life of Design investigates the influence of global trade and exchange on design  traditions from the early modern era to the current day. Drawing upon works from the NGV Collection, the exhibition  highlights how art and design have been shaped by the movement of people and resources. From pigments to produce, timber and textiles, the global exchange of commodities shaped and defined design traditions, leading to  breakthroughs in technology, the rise of luxury markets and the development of consumer culture.

The MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission is a major five-year series that each year invites a female  designer or architect to create a new and significant work for the NGV Collection. For the inaugural commission – to  be unveiled 6 October 2022 – world-leading Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao will create a large-scale architectural  installation entitled La ropa sucia se lava en casa (Dirty clothes are washed at home). The installation incorporates  hand-made textiles and drawings with architectural structures, and draws attention to ideas of labour, community and  gender. The five-year series is enabled by a significant contribution from MECCA Brands through its philanthropic  program, M-Power, which champions and elevates women in art and design. This series marks the single largest  commitment to an Australian cultural institution in the brand’s history.

The first major exhibition of advertising and communication design in the NGV’s history, the Rigg Design Prize 2022 brings together and highlights the creativity that underpins the work of eight outstanding Australian-based  agencies. Now in its ninth edition, the triennial Prize is Australia’s highest national accolade for contemporary design  bestowed by a public gallery and seeks to celebrate and draw focus to a different field of design practice every three  years. Opening 7 October, the 2022 Prize reveals the capacity of advertising to influence contemporary life, society  and culture, and asks eight agencies to respond to a brief highlighting the centrality of creativity in shaping our world

Juxtaposing the NGV’s historical and contemporary collection of Chinese art and design, China – The past is present emphasises the legacy of Chinese cultural and artistic traditions and their ongoing influence in contemporary Chinese  culture. Spanning three millennia and an array of art forms – including painting, calligraphy, ceramics, metal works,  lacquer ware, textiles, furniture, video, posters, photography and mixed media – the exhibition creates an  anachronistic dialogue between ancient artisans and contemporary artists. The exhibition opens 8 October 2022 at  NGV International.

Fred Williams is celebrated as one of Australia’s most significant abstract landscape painters, yet his work as  draughtsman of the human figure is less known. Fred Williams: The London Drawings, opening 21 October 2022,  reveals the full range and power of his drawing oeuvre. In the first exhibition dedicated to William’s London period, this  exhibition features major series of drawings made at the zoo, in the music halls, and on the streets of London.

On 16 November 2022, the annual NGV Architecture Commission returns for its seventh iteration with Adam  Newman and Kelvin Tsang’s Temple of Boom, an evocative reimagining of The Parthenon on the Acropolis in  Athens (447 BCE). As part of the commission, the image of the Parthenon – a symbol of Western art, culture and  civilisation – will be overlayed with artwork by local contemporary artists, adding further layers of meaning and  complexity. The project invites audiences to reflect on the hidden histories that arise when this ancient building is  viewed in new and surprising contexts, as well as the effect of time on all architecture.

Opening 3 December 2022, Freedom of Movement: Contemporary Art and Design from the NGV Collection  features more than 60 works of recently collected art and design by some of the most recognisable names working  today, including nendo, Shilpa Gupta, Erwin Wurm, KAWS and Alex Prager. Offering a dynamic survey of the State  collection, the exhibition provides audiences the chance to experience popular and beloved works in new and  surprising contexts, as well as to appreciate the spectacular correlations and interrelationships between art and  design. Presenting many works in conversation for the very first time, Freedom of Movement highlights the  diversification and growth of the NGV Collection over a ten-year period. Freedom of Movement will be accompanied  by a re-staging of the popular NGV Kids exhibition, Julian Opie: Studio for Kids, which was developed by the NGV  in collaboration with the artist in 2018.

Tony Ellwood AM, Director of the NGV, said: ‘Human creativity is rarely stagnant. Throughout history, artists and  designers have pushed the boundaries of artistic practice in search of new forms of expression. From the clothes we  wear, the buildings we live in, to how we communicate, our Spring/Summer Season is a celebration of creative  innovation – and the innovators who have, and continue to, defy convention.’

The NGV Spring/Summer Season 2022-23 will be on display from August 2022 at NGV International, St Kilda Road,  Melbourne and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Fed Square, Melbourne.

More information and tickets.