29 April 2022: Over two, free culture-filled nights, NGV International and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia will be open from 6.00 pm to 1.00 am on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 May as part of Art After Dark Melbourne, a new major cultural event that will allow audiences rare after-hours access to new artwork displays, performances and exclusive food and beverage offers.
As part of the event, the NGV International façade will be illuminated with an iridescent rainbow projection titled Art After Dark: Illuminating QUEER featuring works from the current landmark exhibition QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection, which will inspire Art After Dark visitors to explore this popular exhibition which highlights the NGV Collection through a queer lens and celebrates the diverse stories embedded in more than 400 artworks.
On display for the first time since its world premiere in 2017, and for the first time ever at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, is Ron Mueck’s large-scale installation, Mass, 2016–17, comprising more than 100 hand-cast skulls, each measuring 1.5m and collectively weighing approximately 5 tonnes. The work will be activated throughout the night by local authors, performers and DJs, offering audiences the chance to experience this much-loved work in new and contemplative ways. A poignant monument for our times, the awe-inspiring work was a highlight of the inaugural NGV Triennial and will be on display on level 3 until January 2023.
In NGV International’s Great Hall, artist Hannah Brontë’s immersive video installation EYE HEAR U MAGIK, 2020, explores notions of queer family making, as well as how women’s intuition is passed down through matriarchal communities. With a captivating and powerful blend of music and film, the work presents a foreboding sense of the future and explores the ways in which Brontë’s culture and spirituality have been, and continue to be, appropriated. The work is Brontë’s most ambitious video piece to date and is presented on a specially-designed curved screen that will envelop visitors to Art After Dark Melbourne.
In Federation Court at NGV International, visitors can sample a selection of outstanding local wines at the Yering Station wine bar. While at the Four Pillars Gin Bar in the Great Hall, visitors can sip Four Pillars cocktails with unexpected twists on classic drinks such as the G&T and Negroni, and enjoy cheese and charcuterie sharing plates, sliders, fried chicken and other delicious late-night snacks options. Over at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia the Cross Bar Café will be open throughout the evening offering light refreshments, drinks and river views.
Visitors to the NGV will have late-night access to all levels of both venues, including performances curated especially for Art After Dark Melbourne that draw on themes of connection and community, as well as all current exhibitions and exclusive food and beverage experiences.
The Hon. Martin Pakula MP, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events said: “This new major event is supporting jobs and will bring tens of thousands of people into the CBD boosting our night-time economy.”
“Art After Dark Melbourne is an exciting way for Melburnians to discover something new at our unsurpassed cultural venues.”
Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV, said: “The NGV is delighted to be working alongside our peer institutions to present Art After Dark Melbourne – a major new Visit Victoria initiative that will bring visitors back into our city-centre and offer Melburnians new and exciting ways to experience art and culture. After-hours programming is extraordinarily popular with NGV audiences, and we have curated a dynamic, late-night program especially for Art After Dark Melbourne revellers that is sure to create moments of joy, contemplation, and connection.”
Art After Dark Melbourne will be held from 6.00 pm to 1.00 am on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 May 2022 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Fed Square, Melbourne. Free entry. Further information is available via the NGV website: NGV.MELBOURNE
Art After Dark Melbourne is presented by Visit Victoria.
Download media release