The National Gallery of Victoria has unveiled details of its fourth NGV Triennial, set to open this December, with a strong emphasis on large-scale installations, spatial interventions and material experimentation.
Staged across all levels of NGV International, the free exhibition brings together nearly 100 artists, designers and collectives, with 25 new commissions transforming both the building and its surrounding public realm.
Two major site-specific works will anchor the Triennial experience. At the forecourt, Lebanese-French designer Najla El Zein will present a carved limestone installation conceived as a civic gathering space, inviting visitors to sit, recline and interact. Inside, Angelina Karadada Boona will reimagine the NGV’s Waterwall with an illuminated Wandjina figure, transforming the iconic facade into a contemplative architectural surface.
Other highlights for interior design and architecture audiences will include Mexican architect Frida Escobedo’s continued investigation into thresholds and privacy with Screen 01, a reworking of the room divider that evokes curtain walls and domestic partitions. Similarly, Indian designer Rooshad Shroff will contribute a suite of intricately crafted furniture and lighting pieces, including embroidered seating and hand-carved marble suspension lamps, highlighting the intersection of craft, decoration and functional design.
Materiality and construction are central themes throughout. Artist Jose Dávila applies an architectural logic to sculptural assemblages of volcanic stone and found objects, while Rachel Kneebone pushes porcelain to structural extremes in a suspended installation that explores weight, fragility and form. In another highlight, Pamela Rosenkranz reintroduces her vivid Old Tree sculpture into Federation Court, reinterpreting the ‘tree of life’ motif through synthetic colour and monumental scale.
The Triennial will also interrogate how interiors mediate image and experience. Sarah Sze’s Slow dance will dissolve the boundary between object and projection, while Martine Syms will present video works within purpose-built sculptural environments that echo the visual language of contemporary media spaces.
Launched in 2017 and held every three years since, the NGV Triennial is a free gallery-wide exhibition of contemporary art, design, architecture and fashion. The inaugural exhibition in 2017 is the NGV’s most attended exhibition in history and was visited by more than 1.23 million people, with a daily average attendance in excess of 10,000 people. In 2023, the third edition of the NGV Triennial welcomed more than 1 million visitors.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
