The NGV has announced its glamorous black-tie gala will return in December, marking the opening of its blockbuster summer exhibition, the NGV Triennial 2023. Along with an exclusive first look at the exhibition, guests will enjoy a headline musical performance (past performers have included Troye Sivan, Baker Boy with G Flip, and Salt-N-Pepa), food and wine, “experiential zones” and impressive art installations. The star-spotting is also likely to be stellar: Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Winnie Harlow and Poppy Delevingne have all been past guests.

Equally star-studded? The NGV Triennial 2023 exhibition. It’ll feature more than 75 projects by 100 artists, designers and collectives, including some of the biggest contemporary artists working today, speaking to the state of the world and asking how we want it to look.

Gala guests will get a first glimpse at a newly acquired work by British artist Tracey Emin, which incorporates a five-metre-tall rendering of Emin’s handwriting in neon lights, alongside sculptures and paintings. Avant-garde Parisian fashion house Maison Schiparelli has collated a selection of pieces from its recent collections, while a text-based work by multimedia artist and activist Yoko Ono will be projected across the gallery’s facade. A brightly coloured, large-scale fibre sculpture by American artist Sheila Hicks will also be on display, while irreverent British visual artist David Shrigley’s contribution is a seven-metre-tall thumbs up, which was originally displayed on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square following the Brexit vote.

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“The NGV Gala is a late-night celebration of Melbourne’s world-renowned art, design, fashion, music and food scenes – and is truly the synthesis of everything that makes Melbourne the cultural capital of Australia,” said NGV’s director and co-chair of the gala, Tony Ellwood, in a statement.

The NGV Gala tradition began in 2017 with the launch of that year’s summer exhibition, The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture. Last year’s gala celebrated the opening of Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse.

NGV Gala 2023 is on December 2. Presale tickets for NGV subscribers go on sale on August 31, and tickets are on sale to the general public from September 1.

ngv.vic.gov.au

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