Curatorial
Explore Simone’s curatorial work at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (NGV) 2013–2025 — twelve years of exhibitions, commissions and collection initiatives championing contemporary designers and their work.
MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2025–Nipa Doshi
25 September 2025–1 April 2026
Celebrated for her distinctive aesthetic that gracefully engages with her Indian heritage, Mumbai-born, London-based designer Nipa Doshi unveils A Room of My Own as the 2025 recipient of the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission. The centrepiece of the commission is a multidimensional cabinet, part shrine and part dressing table, imbued with personal history and ritual. Inspired by Indian kaavad shrines, it honours the multigenerational women who have shaped Doshi’s life through abstract portraits revealed when the cabinet doors open. Alongside the cabinet, Doshi debuts her first typeface, a hand-drafted system of letters, numbers and symbols.
Nipa Doshi is the fourth recipient of the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission, a major series that invites internationally renowned female designers and architects to create major new and significant work for the NGV Collection.
More about the NGV commission here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/mecca-x-ngv-women-in-design-commission-nipa-doshi/
Image credit: Installation view of Nipa Doshi’s, A Room of My Own 2025, MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2025. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Photography Derek Swalwell.
Rigg Design Prize 2025: Next in Design
19 September 2025–1 February 2026
The Rigg Design Prize is Australia’s most prestigious accolade for contemporary design. Since its inception in 1994, this triennial prize exhibition has featured over one hundred designers across a range of disciplines, celebrating their creative achievements and providing a valuable platform for visibility, recognition and impact. For its landmark tenth edition in 2025, the Rigg focused on early-career design practice bringing together more than thirty emerging designers under thirty-five years of age. The exhibition featured ceramics, glass, furniture, woodwork, metalwork, textiles, lighting and contemporary jewellery, presenting ambitious works that reflect bold approaches to materiality, form and function.
On 18 September 2025, Alfred Lowe was awarded the $40,000 Rigg Design Prize. The jury included Marian Hosking, Adam Goodrum, Simone LeAmon and Paul Hecker & Hamish Guthrie of Hecker Guthrie.
The Rigg Design Prize is generously supported by the Cicely & Colin Rigg Bequest, managed by Equity Trustees and major partner Deakin University.
More about the NGV exhibition here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/rigg-design-prize/
Image credit: Participating designers in the Rigg Design Prize 2025: Next in Design, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Photography Tim Carrafa.
Made to Move: Australian Jewellery 1960–2020
19 September 2025–March 2026
Made to move presents works from the NGV’s holdings of Australian jewellery from 1960 to 2020, celebrating artists, designers and craftspeople whose deep material knowledge informs pieces created for the body in motion. Jewellery is never still; even in the gallery its movement is sensed as much as seen. Designed to be worn, jewellery responds to gravity, breath and gesture, shaping how hinges tilt, chains fall and materials meet the skin. Jewellery also moves through relationships, cultures and time, carrying stories and meaning. Across six decades, the display reveals how motion — physical, emotional and cultural, becomes form.
More about the NGV display here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/made-to-move-australian-jewellery-1960-2020/
Image credit: Susan Cohn, Flyaway, bracelet 1987, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased from Admission Funds, 1991.
Melbourne Design Week 2025
15–25 May 2025
Melbourne Design Week continues to grow each year, welcoming more than 100,000 visitors and reaffirming its position as Australia’s largest design event. Across 11 days and over 350 exhibitions, talks and installations, the ninth edition celebrated the depth and diversity of design talent in the region — from emerging practitioners to the industry’s most respected and established voices.
An initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Melbourne Design Week is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria, showcasing how design inspires, challenges and shapes the way we live today.
The 2025 program was curated by NGV’s Contemporary Design and Architecture team: Ewan McEoin, Simone LeAmon, Timothy Moore, Gemma Savio, Ellen Keillar.
More about MDW 2025 here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/media_release/melbourne-design-week-2025-design-the-world-you-want/
Image credit: Melbourne Design Week 2025 brand identity by The Company You Keep (TCYK).
MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2024–Christien Meindertsma
3 October 2024–23 March 2025
Known for her game-changing approach to design, Netherlands-based Christien Meindertsma invites us to imagine a new material future shaped by creativity, ecology and technology. Over two decades, she has undertaken deep research into materials and their industrial systems, exploring sustainability and product life cycles. For the 2024 MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission, Meindertsma presented First There Was a Mountain a monumental wool lamb fabricated using the ‘Wobot’, a 3D robotic felting tool developed in collaboration with Tools for Technology. Joined by a companion chair and film by Roel van Tour, the project reimagines wool as a renewable resource for future design applications.
More about the NGV commission here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/mecca-x-ngv-women-in-design-commission-christien-meindertsma/
Image credits: Installation view of Christien Meindertsma’s, First There Was a Mountain 2024, MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2024. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Photography Eugene Hyland.
Melbourne Design Week 2024
23 May–02 June
Melbourne Design Week celebrates the power of design to shape our world, inviting participants each year to ‘Design the world you want.’ Responding to this call to action, designers harness their skills to drive positive change, reimagine existing systems, and propose innovative responses to global challenges. In 2024, the thematic pillars of ecology, ethics and energy guided the program’s conversations and creative outcomes.
Among the highlights was the Australian Furniture Design Award, the nation’s most significant accolade for furniture design. Founded by Stylecraft and presented in collaboration with the NGV, the biennial award celebrates innovation and excellence in Australian design.
An initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Melbourne Design Week is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria, showcasing how design inspires, challenges and shapes the way we live today.
The 2024 program was curated by NGV’s Contemporary Design and Architecture team: Ewan McEoin, Simone LeAmon, Timothy Moore, Gemma Savio, Georgia Smedley.
More about MDW 2024 here: https://2024.designweek.melbourne/
NGV Triennial 2023
3 December 2023–7 April 2024
NGV Triennial 2023 captured the work of 120 artists, designers and collectives at the forefront of global contemporary practice. Bringing contemporary art, design and architecture into dialogue with one another and traversing all four levels of NGV International. The NGV Triennial 2023 featured more than 100 extraordinary projects that invited reflection on the world as it is, while also asking how we would like it to be. The exhibition explored the themes of Matter, Magic and Memory.
Projects curated by Simone LeAmon include Ashley Jameson Eriksmoen’s Fell, constructed from timber elements salvaged from discarded domestic furniture; Jaydan Moore’s monumental, silver-plated assemblage using more than 150 serving platters exploring memory, nostalgia and symbolism; and Shakuntala Kulkarni’s cane sculpture, created in collaboration with artisans from Assam. Also featured, Tiff Massey’s I Got Bundles and Flewed Out, a powerful critique of the capitalist colonisation of Black beauty and identity, rendered through the language of materiality and adornment.
More about the NGV exhibition here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/triennial/about/
Image credits: Installation view of Ashley Jameson Eriksmoen’s, Fell 2023, commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne on display in NGV Triennial 2023. Photography Sean Fennessy; Installation view of Jaydan Moore’s, Propagate 2020, commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne on display in NGV Triennial 2023. Photography Sean Fennessy; Installation view of Tiff Massey’s I Got Bundles and Flewed Out 2019. Purchased, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Photography Tiff Massey; Shakuntala Kulkarni with her artwork Armour for the brides 2023 featuring sculpture No. 1. Purchased National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Photography Shakuntala Kulkarni.
MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2023–Bethan Laura Wood
3 Dec 2023–14 Apr 2024
Since establishing her eponymous design studio in 2009, Bethan Laura Wood’s radical approach to materiality, colour, and pattern has garnered a cult following. Fascinated with the cultural and historical significance of surface design and colour in domestic space and the interior, she explores unlikely combinations of colour and shape, developing unique timber veneers, material composites and textiles for furniture, lighting, objects, installations, and accessories. Wood’s installation for the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission 2023 ingeniously combined a range of elements, including furniture, textiles and scenography, to delve into the gendered history of education and the transmission of knowledge in the Regency era of Britian.
More about the NGV commission here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/mecca-x-ngv-women-in-design-commission-bethan-laura-wood/
Image credit: Installation view of Bethan Laura Wood’s, Kaleidoscope-o-rama carpet and bookcase 2023, MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2023. Photography Kate Shanasy.
Melbourne Now
24 March–20 August
Melbourne Now 2023 marked the ten-year anniversary of the landmark 2013 exhibition, which presented an unprecedented survey of Melbourne’s most dynamic contemporary artists, designers and architects. The 2023 edition once again highlighted the latest art, design and cultural practice shaping Melbourne’s creative landscape. Presented across all levels of The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, the exhibition spanned fashion, jewellery, product design, painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, video, performance, printmaking and publishing.
A major highlight was the Design Wall, a large-scale presentation of consumer products designed in Melbourne over the past decade. Representing 23 studios from industrial design consultancies to in-house research and design teams the Design Wall brought together designers, companies and brands influencing how we live, work and play. Curated by Simone LeAmon and designed by Hassell in collaboration with NGV, each product revealed a distinct story of iteration, innovation and ambition, celebrating world-first achievements and world-leading design from Melbourne.
More about the NGV exhibition here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-now/home/
Image credit: Installation view of Design Wall 2023, Melbourne Now, 2023, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Photography Earl Carter.
Melbourne Design Fair 2023
18–21 May
Initiated by the NGV and delivered with the Melbourne Art Foundation, with support from the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Melbourne Design Fair was the flagship event of Melbourne Design Week 2023. The second edition was held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, offering an international-standard experience for exhibitors and visitors. The Fair welcomed 10,500 visitors and generated an estimated $4.8M in design sales. Showcasing over 170 designers and makers, it featured presentations by 60 leading Australian galleries, studios and design organisations, alongside the NGV-curated exhibition FOCUS, highlighting five female designers.
Building on the enthusiasm for its 2022 debut, the Fair marked a watershed moment for Australian contemporary design. Grande in scale and curated by Simone LeAmon, it demonstrated the sophistication of Australian collectible design and the role of a regional Fair in cultivating markets, connecting designers with industry and expanding the collector base.
Today, the legacy of the Melbourne Design Fair is embedded within the collectible design sector of the Melbourne Art Fair (2026).
More about MDF 2023 here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/media_release/melbourne-design-fair-2023-more-than-150-designers-and-60-exhibitors-take-over-melbourne-convention-and-exhibition-centre/
Image credits: Installation view of Melbourne Design Fair 2023, an initiative of the National Gallery of Victoria and delivered with Melbourne Art Foundation, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Photography Lillie Thompson.
Installation views of design work on display at Melbourne Design Fair 2023 presented by Dean Toepfer, Craft Victoria, Fearon, Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sullivan & Strumpf and Oigall Projects. Photography Lillie Thompson.
Melbourne Design Week 2023
18–28 May
In 2023, Melbourne Design Week continued its call to “Design the world you want,” inviting individuals and organisations to consider how design can address social isolation, the climate crisis, inequity and the rising cost of living. The program explored what design can do, what more it can do, and how it might do things differently. Three pillars shaped the year: Transparency, advocating openness and material responsibility; Currency, rethinking systems of value beyond the economic; and Legacy, urging reflection on the lasting impact of design.
Since its inception in 2017, the program has expanded from under 100 to over 350 events, attracting more than 70,000 visitors in 2023. The program was curated by NGV’s Contemporary Design and Architecture team: Ewan McEoin, Simone LeAmon, Timothy Moore and Gemma Savio
More about MDW 2023 here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-design-week-2023/
MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2023–Tatiana Bilbao
5 October 2022–19 March 2023
An advocate for architectural design that stimulates social change, Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao explores topics rarely examined by the profession. In her installation for the inaugural MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission, La ropa sucia se lava en casa (Dirty clothes are washed at home), a large concrete communal washbasin and a collaborative textile made during public workshops held in Mexico City, Berlin and Melbourne draw attention to the enduring inequalities surrounding domestic work in contemporary society. Promoting conversations about unpaid labour, gender politics, sustainability and care, Bilbao’s installation alerts us to the ways that space is shaped by dominant ideologies.
The MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission is a major ongoing series that invites internationally renowned female designers and architects to create major new and significant work for the NGV Collection.
More about the NGV commission here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/mecca-x-ngv-women-in-design-commission-tatiana-bilbao/
Image credit: Installation view of Tatiana Bilbao, La ropa sucia se lava en casa 2022, MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission 2022, National Gallery of Victoria. Photography Kate Shanasy
Rigg Design Prize 2022
7 October 2022–29 January 2023
The Rigg Design Prize is Australia’s highest accolade for contemporary design awarded by a public gallery. Presented every three years, it spotlights a different field of design practice. In 2022, the ninth edition curated by Simone LeAmon and Gemma Savio, marked the NGV’s first major exhibition dedicated to advertising and communication design, highlighting the creative thinking driving eight leading Australian-based agencies.
For the exhibition, each agency developed a suite of campaign assets including billboards, street posters and moving-image works demonstrating how creativity shapes identity, culture and the way we engage with the world. Finalists included the Australian offices of both multinational and independent agencies: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, DDB Group Melbourne, Frost*collective, Gilimbaa, Leo Burnett Australia, TBWA\Melbourne, The Royals and Thinkerbell.
On 13 October 2022, Leo Burnett Australia was awarded the $30,000 Rigg Design Prize for its campaign Can creativity make you bleed? The prize was judged by Ewan McEoin and Morry Schwartz AM.
More about the NGV exhibition here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/rigg-design-prize-2022/
Image credits: Installation views of presentations on display in the Rigg Design Prize 2022 by Thinkerbell, The Royals, Clemenger BBDO and DDB Group Melbourne. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Photography Tom Ross.
Installation views of presentations on display in the Rigg Design Prize 2022 featuring presentations by Leo Burnett Australia, TBWA\Melbourne, Frost*collective and Gilimbaa. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Photography Tom Ross
Melbourne Design Fair 2022
16–20 March
The inaugural Melbourne Design Fair showcased collectible contemporary design from more than 100 established and emerging Australian designers and makers. Featuring presentations by leading studios, commercial galleries, design organisations and agencies, along with a spotlight exhibition curated by the NGV’s Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture, the Fair marked a significant moment for the sector.
A highlight of Melbourne Design Week 2022, the Fair was delivered in collaboration with the Melbourne Art Foundation and supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, becoming the first event of its kind in Australia. Staged in a 700sqm warehouse in Abbotsford, the initiative was led by NGV curator Simone LeAmon and developed in response to the social and economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis across 2020–2021. It aimed to stimulate interest in collectible contemporary design and create meaningful economic opportunities for designers, makers, gallerists and the broader sector.
More about MDF 2022 here:
https://www.indesignlive.com/home-slides/melbourne-design-fair-2022
https://www.wallpaper.com/design/discover-melbourne-design-week-2022
Image credits: Installation view of design work on display at ‘Select’ part of Melbourne Design Fair 2022, presented by National Gallery of Victoria in collaboration with Melbourne Art Foundation, Warehouse 16, Duke Street, Abbotsford. Photography Sean Fennessy.
Installation views of design work on display at Melbourne Design Fair 2022 presented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Craft Victoria, Modern Times and Agency Projects. Photography Sean Fennessy.
Melbourne Design Week 2022
17–27 March
Melbourne Design Week (MDW) is an annual 11-day celebration of design, presenting talks, tours, exhibitions, installations, launches and workshops across Australia’s design capital. In 2022, MDW invited people to imagine and build a better future, guided by two key pillars: civic good and making good. The program invited participants to explore how design can strengthen collective life through objects, buildings, services and systems that foster community and serve the common good. It also examined how the value of design extends beyond function and aesthetics to its social and environmental impact. From digital to physical, handmade to industrial, the program showcased ethical and sustainable practices that rethink processes, production and materials.
An initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and delivered by the NGV, MDW has grown from under 100 programs in 2017 to more than 300 in 2022. The 2022 program was curated by the NGV’s Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture: Ewan McEoin, Simone LeAmon, Timothy Moore and Myf Doughty.
More about MDW 2022 here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-design-week-2022/
Jewellery and Body Adornment from the NGV Collection
27 August 2022–12 June 2023
Jewellery and Body Adornment from the NGV Collection presented an exquisite selection of works from antiquity to today, showcasing diverse making traditions across material, cultural and geographical contexts. Defined by their relationship to the body, jewellery and adornment are among the world’s oldest known artforms.
Ranging from the ceremonial and talismanic to the decorative and conceptual, the exhibition featured works made from dazzling, highly prized materials such as precious gems, metals and iridescent seashells, as well as unexpected materials including hair, plastic and rubber, which challenge conventional ideas about what constitutes jewellery and its significance. Drawn entirely from the NGV Collection and organised around four themes — Identity and Place, Status and Aspiration, Ceremony and Ritual, and Values and Sentiment — the exhibition revealed body adornment as a shared global practice
More about the exhibition here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/jewellery-and-body-adornment-from-the-ngv-collection/
Image credits: Installation views of display Jewellery and Body Adornment from the NGV Collection, 2022 featuring Susan Cohn, Walkman, headpiece 1984; England, manufacturer, Crown jewel replicas: Imperial State Crown, c.1936; Mixtec, Oaxaca, Mexico, Bracelet, 1200-1400; Otto Kunzli, ‘Oh, say!’, brooch, 1991; Marjorie Schick, Much ado about twenty bracelets 2006.
History in the Making
20 May 2021–30 Jan 2022
History in the making showcased contemporary design across diverse creative fields, examining how the physical properties and origins of materials, along with their histories and narratives, intersect with systems of production to shape human culture. Curated by Simone LeAmon, the exhibition organised works through the classifications of animal, plant, mineral and synthetic, creating dialogues between the past, present and future of materials in the making of designed objects.
Drawn from the NGV Collection, the exhibition brought together experimental one-off and limited-edition craft and design alongside mass-produced goods and fashion. The works offered broad perspectives on the social, ethical, environmental, economic and technological forces driving innovation, debate and change. History in the making highlighted the evolving relationships between natural and synthetic materials, supply chains and markets, revealing how contemporary approaches to design and production are, quite literally, making history.
More about the exhibition here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/history-in-the-making/
Image credits: Installation views of design work on display in History in the Making, 2021, National Gallery of Victoria. Photography Sean Fennessy.
NGV Triennial 2020
19 December 2020–18 April 2021
The NGV Triennial 2020 brought together contemporary art, design and architecture in dialogue, presenting 86 projects by more than 100 artists, designers and studios from over 30 countries. The exhibition showcased major new commissions and recent works that spanned geography, perspective and genre by leading international practitioners while amplifying the voices of emerging talents. The 2020 edition centred on four themes — Illumination, Reflection, Conservation and Speculation.
Positioning itself as a pivotal international event, the NGV Triennial continued to spark global conversations and strengthen Melbourne’s ties to the world’s creative communities. Its inaugural edition in 2017 attracted 1.23 million visitors.
Projects curated by Simone LeAmon, included a monumental 10-metre video commission by Refik Anadol, harnessing AI, machine learning and quantum computing to visualise digitised memories of nature and designer Faye Toogood’s poetic reinterpretation of the NGV’s seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European collections through newly commissioned furniture, lighting, scenography, sculpture and tapestries.
More about the exhibition: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition-opening/triennial-2020/
Image credits: Installation view of Refik Anadol, Quantum memories 2020. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, NGV Triennial 2020. Photography Tom Ross. Installation views of Faye Toogood, Downtime: Daylight, Candlelight, Moonlight, featuring artworks from the NGV collection. NGV Triennial 2020. Photography Tom Ross.
Melbourne Design Week 2020
12–22 March 2020
In 2020, Melbourne Design Week examined how design shapes life from global disruption to the intimate routines of everyday living. The program built on the success of 2019, extending its investigation of Victoria’s rivers, waterways and oceans with Open House Melbourne through the Waterfront initiative. It also advanced the War on Waste with a focused look at e-waste. Four themes framed the program: Design Cultures, exploring the objects and beliefs that connect communities; Design Evolution, spotlighting emerging approaches to design; and Healthy Cities, evaluating the mental and physical vitality of our urban environment.
More about MDW 2020 here: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-design-week-2020/
National Gallery of Victoria – Black Bamboo: Contemporary Furniture Design From Mer, Torres Strait
13 September 2019 – 5 April 2020
In February 2019, a group of artists living and working on Mer commenced work on a collection of contemporary bamboo furniture design. Mer, also known as Murray Island, is a small volcanic island in Eastern Torres Strait. Mer marks the start of the Great Barrier Reef and is home to a native species of bamboo, known in Meriam language as marep, and colloquially in English as black bamboo. The collective of artists became affectionately known as the Marep Pamle, or bamboo family.
Working in groups, the artists developed ideas for bamboo cabinets and seating; each object designed to tell a collectively agreed upon story informed by Meriam life and culture. The eighteen women and men of the Marep Pamle worked for three weeks to produce the cabinets, seating and cushions in this exhibition with the support of Melbourne furniture designer and craftsman Damien Wright, and the workshop team, including Simone LeAmon and Myles Russell Cook, curators from the National Gallery of Victoria; Kylie Burke, curator, Cairns Art Gallery; Leitha Assan, Exhibitions & Public Programmes Manager and Hans Ahwang, cultural guide, Gab Titui Cultural Centre; and project founder Aven Noah, Mer Gedkem Le (Torres Strait Islanders Corporation).
Members of the Marep Pamle include: James Blanco, Kalina Day, Helen Dick, Dulcie Gibas, Bobby Kaigey Snr, Mary Kaigey, Robert Meddy Kaigey, Helen Mabo, Alick Passi, Andrew Passi Snr, Andrew Passi Jnr, Nellie Passi, Taukie Passi, Zane Sailor, Clay Sambo, John Tabo, Sabu Tabo, and Reteah Tapim.
Black Bamboo: Contemporary Furniture Design From Mer, Torres Strait is a shared curatorial initiative between the National Gallery of Victoria, Cairns Art Gallery and Gab Titui Cultural Centre, with the support of Mer Gedkem Le (Torres Strait Islanders) Corporation RNTBC.
More about Black Bamboo: Contemporary Furniture Design From Mer, Torres Strait here
Essay here by NGV Curators Simone LeAmon and Myles Russell-Cook
Image credits:
Mer, Torres Strait. Photography Simone LeAmon
Koki cabinet 2019 and Ebur Peris Peris cabinet 2019. Photography Tom Ross
Sik utem (Day bed) 2019 and Mas (Cushions) 2019. Photography Tom Ross
Marep pamle artists: Kalina Day, Nellie Passi, Mary Kaigey, Helen Mabo, Helen Dick, Dulcie Gibas, Reteah Tapim.
Installation view NGVBlack Bamboo: Contemporary Furniture Design From Mer, Torres Strait. Photography Tom Ross.
Arti cabinet 2019. Photography Tom Ross.
Gepi cabinet 2019. Photography Tom Ross.
Marep Pamle (from left to right/top to bottom): Project founder Aven Noah, Mary Kaigey, Zane Sailor, Bobby Kaigey Snr, Nellie Passi, Kalina Day, Andrew Passi Snr, Dulcie Gibas, Helen Dick, James Blanco, John Tabo, Helen Mabo, Leitha Assan (Gab Titui), Taukie Passi, Kylie Bourke (CAG), Hans Ahwang (Gab Titui), Sabu Tabo, Damien Wright, Simone LeAmon (NGV), Aven Noah Jnr (Gab Titui), Andrew Passi Jnr, Robert Meddy Kaigey, Myles Russell-Cook (NGV).
National Gallery of Victoria – Lucy McRae: Body Architect
30 August 2019 – 9 February 2020
Body architect, science-fiction artist and speculative designer, Lucy McRae considers how human biology might be augmented by a mixture of physical design, modification of emotions, molecular biology and technology.
Lucy McRae: Body Architect at NGV illuminates McRae’s creative path and work over the first thirteen years of her career. Her unique perspective on how humanity might move through the world in the future is explored through the mediums of photography, video and installation.
The first survey exhibition of McRae’s provocative and beguiling work, Lucy McRae: Body Architect traverses the Australian artist-designer’s numerous concerns – from art to commerce, science to popular culture – by showcasing her collaborations with brands, scientists and pop musicians alongside her creative research practice over the past thirteen years.
Accompanying the exhibition is the first title dedicated to this singular artist-designer. Lucy McRae: Body Architect is published by NGV and edited by Curator Simone LeAmon with texts by LeAmon, Dr Adam Nash, Associate Dean of Digital Design at RMIT University’s School of Design; and Dr Bronwyn Lovell a science-fiction poet and scholar.
More about Lucy McRae: Body Architect here
Purchase NGV Publication here
Image credits: Installation views Lucy McRae:Body Architect. Photography Tom Ross.
National Gallery of Victoria – Designing Women
28 September 2018 – 29 September 2019
Spanning nearly 40 years, from 1980 to 2018, Designing Women highlights the ongoing role of female designers as a dynamic and critical force in shaping contemporary design culture. From fashion design, contemporary jewellery, and product design, to architecture and digital innovation, Designing Women draws from the NGV Collection to showcase over 50 significant works of design – across diverse creative fields – all united by their female authorship.
From modern-day trailblazers including Zaha Hadid and Neri Oxman, to local heroes such as Elliat Rich and Helen Kontouris, Designing Women draws into focus the accelerating opportunity for women to shape the future, in a world increasingly defined by design.
More about Designing Women here
Find essay here by NGV Curator Simone LeAmon
Image credit: Aljoud Lootah Oru lamp, Elliat Rich Standing Place, Alisa Andrasek and Jose Sanchez Bloom, Iris van Herpen Dress, Patricia Urquiola Fjord chair and stool, Faye Toogood Roly-Poly chair. Photography Tom Ross.
National Gallery of Victoria – Rigg Design Prize 2018
12 October 2018 – 24 February 2019
Recognising excellence in Australian design, the Rigg Design Prize is the highest accolade for contemporary design in Australia. The triennial prize is awarded to an Australian design practice displaying outstanding creative achievements in contemporary design.
The shortlist for the Rigg Design Prize 2018 included ten Australian design studios working in the field of interior design and decoration. For the prize exhibition, each studio was invited to design a purpose built interior that responds to the 2018 exhibition theme of Domestic Living. The NGV asked each design studio to produce an interior capable of communicating to audiences how designers create interiors as forms of communication embedded with values, ideas and stories that directly engage with the cultural, historical, material and technological aspects of society.
On 11 October 2018, Melbourne design practice Hecker Guthrie was awarded the prestigious Rigg Design Prize. The prize was judged by Shashi Caan, CEO of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers .
Shortlisted design studios included: Amber Road (NSW), Arent & Pyke (NSW), Danielle Brustman (VIC), Flack Studio (VIC), David Hicks (VIC), Hecker Guthrie (VIC), Martyn Thompson Studio (NYC), Scott Weston Architecture Design (NSW), The Society Inc by Sibella Court (NSW), Richards Stanisich (NSW)
More about the Rigg Design Prize 2018 here
Image credits
Installation view: Danielle Brustman
Installation views: Amber Road, David Hicks, Richards Stanisich, Arent&Pyke
Installation views: Flack Studio, Martyn Thompson, Scott Weston, Sibella Court
Installation view: Hecker Guthrie
National Gallery of Victoria – Melbourne Design Week
15 March – 25 March 2018
Creative Victoria and the NGV launched Melbourne Design Week in 2017 – a major new four-year design initiative conceived as an ambitious and collaborative program that underscores Melbourne’s position as a global design city.
In 2018 Melbourne Design Week looks at the theme Design Effects and delves into the wide reaching nature of design in its broadest sense. From the physical to the creation of experiences, services and identities, it asks: what effect does design have on the environment around us? How is design a catalyst for change?
This key initiative of the Victorian Government, led by the NGV’s Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture department, has seen Melbourne and Victoria come alive with over 160+ exhibitions, workshops, talks and tours across the state.
More about Melbourne Design Week 2018 here
National Gallery of Victoria – NGV Triennial
15 December 2017 – 15 April 2018
The NGV’s Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture is the first of its kind for an art gallery in Australia. Launched in 2015, the Department spearheads the NGV’s vision to become a leading international proponent for design.
Simone LeAmon, the Hugh Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture, is a curator at the NGV, and alongside Senior Curator, Ewan McEoin, co-curates the NGV’s Contemporary Design and Architecture programme.
Simone, in conjunction with the NGV curatorium for the inaugural NGV Triennial, developed the design and architecture component of the exhibition.
The inaugural NGV Triennial is an unprecedented, large-scale exhibition of international art, design and architecture, featuring works by over 100 artists and designers from 32 countries. Traversing all four levels of the NGV, the exhibition includes works by leading designers including Nendo, Formafantasma, Alexandra Kehayoglou, teamLab, Joris Laarman, Brodie Neill, Sean O’Connell, Neri Oxman, Sissel Tolaas and more.
Since its opening on 15 December 2017, more than one million people have visited the NGV Triennial.
The inaugural NGV Triennial is intended as a platform on which to present a global snapshot of contemporary art and design practice, to create a space for inspiration and conversation, and to give voice to some of the pressing issues of our time.
More about the NGV Triennial here
TeamLab Moving Creates Vortices and Vortices Create Movement 2017
National Gallery of Victoria – Contemporary lei and body adornment from the Torres Strait Islands
March – April 2017
As part of a curatorial project developed by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and Cairns Art Gallery (CAG) in association with Gab Titui Cultural Centre, an exciting new collection of contemporary lei and body adornment from throughout the Torres Strait Islands was produced between March and April 2017. Delivering the workshops on behalf of the NGV and CAG, was Simone LeAmon, Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture (NGV), Myles Russell-Cook, Curator of Indigenous Art (NGV), Ashleigh Campbell Curator (CAG), and Torres Strait Islander artist, Hans Ahwang. Together, the team facilitated a series of artist-led workshops on Thursday Island, Saibai Island, Erub (Darnley Island), Mer (Murray Island), Mua (Moa Island) and Badu, where communities came together to make and explore their artistic practice. In each workshop, participants produced unique body adornment incorporating both customary materials such as shells, feathers and seeds, as well as contemporary and recycled materials including copper, plastic and rubber. Each of the works produced offers a unique snapshot as to the breadth and diversity of cultural practices unique throughout the Torres Strait.
The project provided a vital exchange of knowledge between artists and curators, and through the workshop model created a deeper understanding of the shared cultures and identities throughout the Torres Strait. The culmination of this work was a magnificent collection of lei ranging from large-scale sculptural wall hangings, to intimate and delicate wearable pieces produced by fifty-three artists acquired for the permanent collections at both NGV and CAG. As a highlight of the city-wide programming for the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2017, more than forty of these works appeared in the exhibition Lei it on at the Cairns Art Gallery from 24 June – 27 October.
Image credits: Theresa Clermont, Shirley Ewadie Daniel, Dadib Ema Ingui, Bonita Kaida Ngalpan Buway Lei (Our family lei) 2017; Nancy Kiwat and Fred Kiwat Gazir lagoon 2 2017; Nancy Naawi Island home 2017; Ellarose Savage My home reef 2017; Hans Ahwang Kulai pamle (First family) 2017; Isobel Stephens Mudtha maza (Home reef) 2017. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Commissions 2017. Photographs courtesy of NGV.
Visit the journey here on garlandmag.com
National Gallery of Victoria – Creating the Contemporary Chair
17 March – 15 October 2017
Creating the Contemporary Chair presents arresting and provocative chair designs by some of the most interesting Australian and international designers practising in recent decades. Comprising thirty-five new acquisitions supported by Gordon Moffatt AM, this exhibition explores the significance of chairs as markers of design evolution and as objects embedded with meaning, expression, experimentation and utility. Works on display range in date from 1980 to 2016 and include examples of both mass-produced and studio-created chairs sourced from around the globe.
Two years in development, Creating the Contemporary Chair explores the allure of the chair and its enduring hold over the designer. Offering fresh perspectives on chairs designed in our time the exhibition features the following works: Ghost armchair 1987 Cini Boeri and Tomu Katalanagi; Rose chair 1990 Masanori Umeda; Pepe chair 1992 Chris Connell & Map; Aeron chair 1994 Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf; Knotted chair 1996 Marcel Wanders; Go chair 1998 Lovegrove; Air chair 2000 Jasper Morison; Ghost chair 2002 Philippe Starck; Fjord armchair and stool 2002 Patricia Urquiola; Vitória Régia stool 2002 and Cake stool 2008 Estudio Campana; Stop playing with yourself 2005 Shamburg + Alvisse ; 101 chair 2006 Helen Kontouris; Clay Dining chair 2006 Maarten Baas; Principessa day bed 2006 Doshi Levien; MYTO chair 2008 Konstantin Grcic; Stitch chair 2008 Adam Goodrum; Plopp kitchen stool 2008 Oskar Zieta; Shadowy Armchair 2009 Tord Boontje; Spun chair 2009 Thomas Heatherwick; Endless chair 2011 Dirk van der Kooij; Alice chair 2011 Jacoppo Foggini; Chinaman’s file rocking chair 2011 Trent Jansen; Gravity stool 2012 Jólan van der Wiel; Post Mundus chair 2012 Martino Gamper; The Well Proven Chair 2012 Marjan van Aubel and James Shaw; Diatom chair Ross Lovegrove 2014; Kuskoa Bi chair 2015 Jean Louis Iratzoki; Settlers chair 2015 Jon Goulder; Fiona blackfish 2015 Porky Hefer; Flax chair 2016 Christien Meindertsma; She chair 2016 Tracey Deep; and, Remolten stool 2016 GT2P.
Photographs courtesy of NGV
National Gallery of Victoria – Common Ground
30 September 2016 – 29 January 2017
Drawing on works from the NGV’s permanent collections of contemporary art, design, fashion, decorative art, photography and prints and drawings, Common Ground ignores traditional artistic or medium-based categories to investigate relationships between and across contemporary creative practices.
Each of the unique settings in the exhibition is anchored by a central theme chosen to illuminate the common ground between creative disciplines. The themes – urbanism, nature, time, masculinity and anthropomorphism – serve as bases from which viewers can explore how ideas, materials, mediums and forms flow, recur or overlap between works of art and design.
This interdisciplinary approach to the display of art and design allows us to slice through social, cultural, scientific or physiological terrains to reveal how certain themes repeat and act as connecting pathways between contemporary creative practices.
Exhibition includes keyword by: Marc Newson, El Ultimo Grito, Andy Warhol, Patricia Piccinini, Gay Hawkes, Ricky Swallow, Aljoud Lootah and more.
More about the NGV exhibition here
Photographs courtesy of NGV
National Gallery of Victoria – Art of the Pacific
26 March – 21 August 2016
In search of lei (garlands) for inclusion in Art of the Pacific an exciting collection display showcasing the amazing arts and diverse cultures of the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia, Simone LeAmon NGV Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture travelled to New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji in December 2015. Culminating in twentyfive works made by customary and contemporary artists and makers the collection provides compelling insight into the lei in contemporary Pacific cultural practice.
Featuring works by Fran Alison, Mary Ama, Chris Charteris, Tanya Edwards, Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows, Tui Emma Gillies, Leanne Joy Lupelele Clayton, Novima Kapente, Niki Hastings McFall, Ross Malcolm, Pele Family, Alan Preston, Emily Siddell, Lu’isa Unga Kaufusi, Lesieli Katokakala Tohi Topou and Mele Tu’ahiva.
National Gallery of Victoria – Rigg Design Prize 2015
18 September 2015 – 7 February 2016
Recognising excellence in contemporary Australian design, the Rigg Design Prize is the highest accolade for object and furniture design in Australia. Awarded to a designer with outstanding creative achievements, the triennial prize is a reflection of the National Gallery of Victoria’s commitment to contemporary, art, design and architecture. The invitational award, formerly the Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award, was established in 1994 to support contemporary craft and design practice in Victoria. In 2015, the new look prize extends to include a selection of designers from around Australia.
Curated by Simone LeAmon, Curator, NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture, the Rigg Design Prize 2015 showcased a significant body of work from seven outstanding designers. Identified for producing some of the most interesting and compelling object and furniture design in Australia today, the participants are Adam Goodrum, Brodie Neill, Daniel Emma, Kate Rohde, Khai Liew, Korban Flaubert and Koskela in collaboration with the weavers of Elcho Island Arts.
The judges for the Rigg Design Prize 2015 were Gijs Bakker and Wava Carpenter, Prize recipient Adam Goodrum.
The Rigg Design Prize was generously supported by the Cicely & Colin Rigg Bequest, managed by Equity Trustees.
Images (Top left to right) Installation view, Kate Rohde, Daniel Emma, Brodie Neill, Korban Flaubert, Koskela in collaboration with the weavers of Elcho Island Arts, Khai Liew, Adam Goodrum.
More about the NGV Rigg Design Prize 2015 here
National Gallery of Victoria – Melbourne Now – Melbourne Design Now
22 November 2013 – 23 March 2014
Melbourne Now celebrates the latest art, architecture, design, performance and cultural practice to reflect the complex cultural landscape of creative Melbourne.
Recognising the role design plays in the city, the NGV dedicated one-third of Melbourne Now to design and architecture.
Melbourne Design Now curated by Simone LeAmon with exhibition design by LeAmon and Edmund Carter is the first design exhibition of its kind to be shown at the NGV. A presentation of localised creative intelligence in the fields of industrial, product, furniture and object design this exhibition comprises more than 90 design projects from 56 designers, design studios and companies.
Celebrating design’s relationship to everyday life, Melbourne Design Now reveals how contemporary designers are embedding unique and serial design production with ideas, meaning and emotion to resonate with the city of Melbourne. The exhibition contains five themes:
Design and Social Culture, Design and the Economy, Design and the Human Body, Design and Sustainability, Design and Visual Culture.
The exhibition is presented in several parts.
Design Wall: Design in Everyday Life
A giant ‘design wall’, Design in everyday life, presents 40 products by 21 Melbourne design studios. Located on Level 3 of the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, almost 700 objects make up the design wall, communicating design’s relationship to serial manufacturing.
Designers and manufacturers
Brightgreen; Catalyst Design Group and Knog; Charlwood Design for Oates; CobaltNiche for Yarra Trams, KeepCup and Associated Controls; Crumpler; Demain International for BluCave; Design+Industry for Quickboats and Billi; David Flynn for Willow Ware Australia; Dale Hardiman; Helen Kontouris; Tom Kovac; Adam Lynch; Outerspace Design for b.box; Nick Rennie; Rip Curl; Ronstan; Sherrin; Sprocket; Belinda Stening and Curve magazine.
Supported by The Hugh D. T. Williamson Foundation
Design Wall: Design in Everyday Life. Photo Nicole England
More about the NGV Melbourne Now: Design Wall here
About the Design Wall 1 About the Design Wall 2Design Case Studies
A curated selection of design projects responding to the themes of design and the economy, design and the human body, design and social culture and design and sustainability located on Level 2 and 3 of the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, and the NGVI Garden.
Design projects include cinema cameras by Blackmagic Design, the Direct to Brain Bionic Eye project led by Mark Armstrong for the Monash Vision Group and Monash University (MADA), the Bolwell EDGE caravan by Bolwell Corporation designed by Vaughan Bolwell and the video series The Secret Life of Things by eco designer Leyla Acaroglu.
About the Case Studies
Day 31 Day 49Contemporary Furniture, Lighting and Object Design Collection
A curated selection of furniture, lighting and object design celebrating Melbourne’s flourishing designer-maker culture. Comprising limited production and one-off experimental design, each work is a story told through material and process designed to test our perceptions of taste, beauty and usefulness.
Designers
Ash Allen; Tate Anson; Gregory Bonasera; Christopher Boots; Adam Cornish and Wovin Wall; Emma Davies; Tim Fleming; Dale Hardiman; André Hnatojko; Jarrod Lim and Innermost; Anara Mailybayeva; Marc Pascal; Anthony Raymond; Kate Rohde; Kate Stokes; Damien Wright.
Photography Nicole England
About the Projects
Day 10 Day 20The Melbourne Now Design Residency: Bolwell EDGE Caravan studio
Sited in the Grollo Equiset Garden at NGV International, the Bolwell EDGE caravan designed by Vaughan Bolwell is a designer’s studio, open to the public from Thursday through to Sunday 10am–2pm. Placing emphasis on design thinking, strategy and process the Melbourne Now Design Residency aims to communicate that design is an agency for conceptualising, testing and distributing ideas that can move us to think and behave differently. The 16 designers participating in the residency have each devised a four-day work schedule to showcase their design ideas, demonstrate their creative research methods and prototyping processes.
Designers
A&D Projects; Studiobird; Vaughan Bolwell; Carter LeAmon; Crowd Productions; ENESS; Tom Kovac; Lab De Stu; Ben Landau; Leah Heiss; Little Wonder; Maker Machine; Mathery Studio; Stephen Mushin; Urban Commons; Danielle Wilde.
About the Residencies
Day 10 Day 20
