Robotic dogs. Yoko Ono. A dragon-imprinted McDonald's sign. Tracey Emin. After years of waiting, the NGV Triennial truly is back and better than ever. In an electric fusion of contemporary art, design and architecture, the 2023 iteration will feature more than 75 projects and invites us to reflect on the world as it is while asking how we would like it to be.
Running from December 3 to April 7, 2024, the three key thematic pillars are 'Magic, Matter and Memory', and you can expect the works from 100 artists, designers and collectives to traverse all four levels of NGV International. The line-up features artists from around the world, such as Sheila Hicks (USA), Agnieszka Pilat (Poland), Tracey Emin (UK), Betty Muffler (Australia), David Shrigley (UK), Yoko Ono (Japan), Shakuntala Kulkarni (India), Tao Hui (China), Schiaparelli (France) and more.
With more than 25 world-premiere projects commissioned by the NGV exclusively for this exhibition, the Triennial will reveal the ways in which leading and emerging artists and designers have responded to the most relevant and critical global issues of our time.
Agnieszka Pilat will train Boston Dynamics robot dogs to paint autonomously, and audiences will be able to see these dogs paint a monolithic durational work. In a special collaboration with Paris haute couture house Schiaparelli, the NGV has invited artist director Daniel Roseberry to present a selection of works from recent collections alongside a number of gilded surrealist accessories and body adornment.
Counter-culture icon Yoko Ono will present a large-scale text-based work on the NGV International facade, and Tracey Emin will present an exciting selection of works, including a five-metre-high text-based neon light installation of her own handwriting, tactile bronze sculptures and figurative paintings. David Shrigley OBE will reflect on the banality of everyday life with his monumental public sculpture Really Good, 2016.
The French artist Jean Jullien will transform the NGV Kids gallery into RIFIFI: Jean Jullien for Kids, an underwater world inspired by the artist's childhood trips to the coast of France. Children can dress up in fish costumes and explore an immersive and interactive exhibition space featuring large-scale drawings by the artist.
Other highlights include an immersive one-hundred-metre-long woven fish fence titled Mun-dirra produced over two years by artists working in Maningrida, Arnhem Land. The NGV has also commissioned a large-scale work that invites ten leading street photographers to capture the urban environment of ten global megacities like Delhi, Tokyo and Mexico City.
“In the three years since the last NGV Triennial, the world has experienced a great many structural shifts, including a global pandemic,” said the NGV director Tony Ellwood AM. “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.”
The NGV Triennial is on display from December 3 until April 7, 2024, at the NGV International where entry is free. Further information is available via the NGV website here.