NGV 2023

NGV TRIENNIAL 2023: 75+ PROJECTS BY 100 ARTISTS, DESIGNERS AND COLLECTIVES FROM 30+ COUNTRIES

 From robotics to tapestry, weather patterns to war, mysticism to megacities – NGV Triennial 2023 is a powerful and moving snapshot of the world today as captured through the work of 100 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 features more than 75 extraordinary projects that invite us to reflect on the world as it is, while also asking how we would like it to be.

Featured artists include:  Sheila Hicks (USA), Tracey Emin (UK), Petrit Halilaj (Kosovo), Betty Muffler (Australia), Yoko Ono (Japan), David Shrigley (UK),  Schiaparelli (France), Agnieszka Pilat (Poland), Hoda Afshar (Iran), Thomas J Price (UK), Fernando Laposse (Mexico), Azuma Makoto (Japan), Flora Yukhnovich (UK), Yee I-Lann (Malaysia), Farrokh Mahdavi (Iran), Heather B. Swann (Australia), Hugh Hayden (USA), Joyce Ho (Taiwan), Shakuntala Kulkarni (India),  SMACK (Netherlands), Yinka Shonibare (UK), Tao Hui (China), Nazgol Ansarinia(Iran),  Diedrick Brackens (USA) and many more.

With more than 25 world-premiere projects commissioned by the NGV especially for this presentation, the NGV Triennial reveals the extraordinary ways in which leading and emerging artists and designers have responded to the most relevant and critical global issues of our time. With many of the works on display entering the NGV Collection, the NGV Triennial establishes a lasting legacy for Victoria that can be accessed for many generations to come.

Three key thematic pillars of  Magic,  Matter and  Memory  anchor the 2023 NGV Triennial. Rather than forming a structure for the exhibition’s organisation and the selection of works, the themes offer insight into the concerns of the artists and designers in the exhibition. The three themes are entangled discourses that flow between and across the projects within the exhibition. The theme of Magic delves into belief systems, allegory and symbolism, revealing some of the ways that human spirituality has shaped the world around us. Matter draws together nature, materials and making, highlighting the central role that materials and the natural world play in shaping human culture. Finally, Memory  shines a light on both the histories of people, places and objects that make up the complex tapestry of our contemporary world.

Tony Ellwood AM, Director of NGV, said: "In the three years since the last NGV Triennial, the world has experienced a great many structural shifts, including a global pandemic. Through the work of more than 100 artists, designers, architects and collectives from Australia and around the world, the NGV Triennial offers a powerful insight into the ideas and concerns empowering creative practice in 2023. The artists, designers and architects of our time play an important role in helping us to understand, navigate and relate to the world around us."

The 2023 NGV Triennial offers audiences a valuable opportunity to experience new and surprising forms of creative expression from around the globe, which, together, present a compelling snapshot of the world as it is, while also asking how we would like it to be,’ said Ellwood.

Further highlight commissions, acquisitions and large-scale presentations at NGV Triennial 2023:

Hoda Afshar (b. Iran): The Fold, 2023, a newly commissioned work by Hoda Afshar investigates images by the French psychiatrist and photographer Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault (1872-1934), who photographed veiled Islamic women, and sometimes men, in Morocco.

Unfolding in three parts, Afshar's large-scale installation continues the artist’s decade-long exploration into how the medium of photography became – and continues to serve as – one of the central tools in the project of colonialism thought its representations of Islamic women.