The best art and exhibitions in Melbourne this month

Do you have golden retriever energy, or are you more of a black cat kind of person? Felines and canines form an important part of the everyday lives, pop culture and mythology of humans, and the latest exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria celebrates the role of these animals. 

Cats and Dogs is now showing at the NGV’s Ian Potter Centre until July 2025. The exhibition will feature more than 250 works of art, design and fashion spanning diverse periods and media, all drawn from the NGV’s own collection. 

One side of the exhibition is dedicated to all things dogs, with the other side to our feline friends. The cross-cultural and transhistorical collection of artworks spotlights the cultural symbolism of cats and dogs, from their significance in religion, spirituality and the occult, to their appearances in pop culture. 

The multifaceted line-up of artists includes Pierre Bonnard, Rembrandt van Rijn, David Hockney and Jeff Koons, as well as local talents Atong Atem, Grace Cossington Smith and Trevor Turbo Brown. In terms of fashion, there are also impressive pieces from Romance Was Born and Alexander McQueen.

Find out more about Cats and Dogs including ticket information over here.

Feeling arty? Check out the best art and exhibitions happening in Melbourne this month.

Entering the first-ever retrospective exhibition of Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie’s expansive work is like stepping into a colour-saturated graffiti-influenced essay on the lasting impacts of colonisation. Rekospective: The Art of Reko Rennie showcases works from the artist’s career spanning two decades, in the largest display of his work to date. The retrospective also included never before seen bodies of work. 

Italian polymath, painter, inventor and astounding genius Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most celebrated artists and scientists of all time, yet seeing his works is typically out of reach for the average Aussie. Well, all that’s about to change thanks to the Lume Melbourne’s new immersive experience. 

Leonardo da Vinci – 500 Years of Genius will feature massive projections of some of the world’s most famous works of art, including the ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘The Last Supper’. These four-storey high projections showcase da Vinci’s breathtaking Renaissance paintings in a way that’s much more accessible than a trip to the Louvre. 

Alongside da Vinci’s visually stunning artworks, this exhibition will also focus on his excellence as an inventor with ideas far beyond his era. His pioneering work in architecture and engineering laid the foundation for the technology we enjoy today. That’s why alongside his art, the exhibition will also feature groundbreaking inventions from his notebooks recreated to scale by Italian artisans, including flying machine concepts that predate human flight by more than 400 years. 

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, for the first time in history, original pages of da Vinci’s sketches and writings will touch down in Australia. The Codex Atlanticus is a 500-year-old collection of Leonardo’s innermost workings, previously displayed in the likes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre. Now, Melburnians and visitors alike will be able to examine these precious pages with their very own eyes. In fact, these pages are so priceless that they can only come out for three months at a time, before returning to Milan to recover in the dark for three years. 

The immersive experience will also feature pioneering research more than 15 years in the making by French optical engineer Pascal Cotte, a consultant to the Louvre. He has scanned the 'Mona Lisa' with his 240,000,000 pixel multispectral camera, peeling back the layers of her storied smile to reveal 25 previously hidden details about the famous work.

“The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever,” says Cotte. His exact 360-degree replica of the framed painting is the only one of its kind in the world.  

While you're there, don't forget to check out the cutting-edge AI and VR interactive technologies that breathe life into da Vinci's iconic work, as well as grabbing a bite at the exquisite Renaissance-themed culinary experience in Caffè Medici.

Sessions start from 10am seven days a week, most days of the year. Tickets are $39.90 for concession holders, $49.90 for adults, $29.90 for kids and $129.90 for families. Children under four years of age are free and tickets are available here.

Hungry for more artistic inspiration? Here are the best art and exhibitions in Melbourne this month.

Māori storyteller Irihipeti Waretini has created a new exhibition of photography, multimedia art and film centred around the Māori matriarchy. Māreikura - Ka rere te rongoā (the medicine flows) is happening now at the CBD’s Immigration Museum, until late February 2025. 

The exhibition, which is Waretini’s first solo showing, features 15 striking photographic portraits of Māori women, all of whom have moko kauae – aka traditional chin tattoos. Also included is an intricately carved pou (pillar). 

‘Māreikura’ is a te reo Māori term meaning matriarch or noble-born woman, such as those seen in the portraits.

According to Waretini, “moko kauae has direct systemic healing mechanisms for Māori and anyone who beholds us wearing it.  “So naturally, it would be a key part of my first solo exhibition”, she says.

“When the missionaries and early settlers arrived in Aotearoa, they brought with them their culturally specific understandings of the role and status of women, which was and is very demeaning to the importance and status of the Māori Matriarchy within Māori society.

“Every opportunity we take to centre our Māreikura, we are returning to the ways in which we acknowledge the natural order of the universe, the interrelationship or whanaungatanga of all living things to one another and to the environment, and the overarching principle of balance, and securing an Indigenous future.”

Māreikura is free to attend for members and children. Tickets for adults are $15, or $10 for seniors. Read more about the exhibition over here.

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Feeling arty? Check out the best art and exhibitions happening in Melbourne this month.

Have you heard of the Untitled Goose Game? You know, the one where it’s a lovely morning in the village, and you’re a horrible goose? Even if you haven’t, this surprisingly wholesome (and free!) family-friendly exhibition is still likely to prompt a chuckle and teach you something about our homegrown gaming industry.

ACMI’s latest exhibition is titled Honk! Untitled Goose Exhibition and it’s all about a video game where you play a grumpy goose terrorising an innocent little town. Released in 2029 by Victorian developers House House, Untitled Goose Game is a multi-award-winning game of stealth and slapstick, which was quick to become a global cult favourite with kids and grownups alike. 

Whether you’re a video game expert or a complete noob, you can learn about the rich history of slapstick comedy that inspired the game, or play early versions from the development process that have never been seen by the public before. Little ones will enjoy sound effect buttons and colourful interactive displays. 

This exhibition is free and unticketed, which means you can drop into ACMI any time from September 17 2024 until February 16 2025. Find out more about Honk! Untitled Goose Exhibition at the ACMI website.

Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.

Feeling arty? Check out the best art and exhibitions happening in Melbourne this month.

This exhibition shines a light on 36 of Australia's leading First Nations creatives, tracing an Indigenous design movement that has evolved into a national phenomenon. 

Witness the beauty and story of 24 hand-crafted garments by Indigenous artists and designers, created across the nation from the inner city to remote desert art centres. The diversity of these garments reflects the strength and breadth of the rapidly expanding Indigenous fashion and textile industry in this country. Read more.

Have you ever dreamed of walking with dinosaurs? Well Melbourne, life finds a way. Jurassic World: The Exhibition is roaring into the city this year following a hugely successful stint in Sydney. This enormous and immersive experience celebrates 31 years of the film franchise that began with the ground-breaking 1993 movie Jurassic Park. Read more.

As you enter the tranquil space of the museum’s living Forest Gallery, you’ll encounter portraits of Elders and community members of the Eastern Kulin Nations. Use your phone to listen to their stories, detailing their unique and personal relationships to Country. Read more.

This blockbuster exhibition features murals, sculptures, photos, mapping shows (aka images or animations projected onto irregularly shaped surfaces), installations (including an “infinity room” filled with mirrors) and a simulation of ‘Dismaland Bemusement Park’ (for those who’ve never heard of it, it’s a gritty, dark theme park that was created by Banksy in 2015). Read more.

Joy features seven brand new commissioned installations from leading Victorian-based creatives, each expressing the artists’ own personal joy. You can expect an emotive adventure where colour and storytelling combine, and big happy moments that sit alongside more reflective ones. Read more.

Translating to ‘many mobs’ in the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung language, Wurrdha Marra showcases pieces from emerging and established artists from across Australia. Highlights of the free exhibition include a large-scale installation of fish traps produced by Burrara women from Maningrida. Read more.