Art

Fresh local produce, goods crafted by local creatives, and vintage bargains—Melbourne markets are some of the best, and well worth a Sunday morning peruse with coffee in hand.

We love Melbourne, but you know ... living in one of the world's best cities comes with a price tag, good thing Urban List has you you covered with a stack of things to eat, drink, do and see all on a shoestring as part of our series Budget Ballin'. This time we've teed up 20 of the best cheap and free things to do in Melbourne to keep both you and your hip pocket happy.

We might not know who Banksy is, but there's no denying the global fascination with his (or their?) art. The enigmatic graffiti artist is renowned for his provocative and often political street art, which is currently showcased in Docklands, following successful runs in London, Amsterdam, and the US.

Transformed into a world of light, colour and music, step into the Royal Botanic Gardens which has been reimagined into an immersive symphony of sights, Lightscape. Across the RBT, the trails, lakes and garden spaces have been enchanted with glowing installations guaranteed to captivate all of your senses. 

Expanding its artistic footprint across Victoria, Wall to Wall is making its way to the beachside suburb of Mordialloc from April 26 to 28 following a successful stint in Benalla. 

January is creeping up on us once again, and the NGV has served up a free after-hours festival set to shake up your summer nights, for 10 days straight. The Triennial EXTRA offers a little piece for everyone to enjoy—from pop-up artist talks and immersive gallery activations to vibe-providing DJ sets. 

It’s 2500 litres of continuous rainfall, where contemporary art, technology and nature collide in a multi-sensory experience—and you’re in the centre. Random International’s Rain Room is returning to Melbourne for its third season, on Wednesday 1 November. 

Everyone who's anyone is rocking a manicured nail these days. From eye-catching nail art to simple nudes and pastels to sharp-ended stiletto talons, there wasn't a bare nail to be found at New York Fashion Week, which means now is the time for a magnificent manicure.

Just shy of a year ago, Melbourne's RISING took the city by a cross-cultural storm with around two weeks of electric events, gigs, performances and experiences, and the good news is that they're officially returning for 2023. Dates have been confirmed—for Wednesday 7 June through to Sunday 18 June—along with the first act. And it's set to be a showstopper. 

If you live in Melbourne, it means you live close to some of the best galleries our great nation has to offer. So, in the spirit of Urban List Art Month, here’s our round-up of some of the best galleries you can feast your eyes on in Melbourne when you’re starving for some culture.

With the new build being part of the Victorian Governments’ $1.7 billion injection to the Melbourne Arts industry, the NGV Contemporary upon completion will become the largest art, design and exhibition space in Australia.

As if there weren't enough reasons to love the NGV, they’ve revealed that their summer blockbuster exhibition will centre around one of the most iconic designers of the late 20th Century, Alexander McQueen.

In what’s almost become a fixture to Victoria’s arts scene, Melbourne’s Rone has announced his latest installation, Time.

The NGV is opening their doors to their winter blockbuster, The Picasso Century. It doesn’t get bigger than this, an entire collection of the Spanish painter and artist’s work will be on display, showcasing his creative development through several movements including surrealism, cubism, post-impressionism and more.

Melbourne's long-awaited arts festival, RISING, is in full swing. So far, punters have eaten like royalty at The Lighthouse,  explored the electric labyrinth that is Golden Square carpark, while some were lucky enough to nab tickets to a riotous gig led by Sampa the Great. 

Even in the middle of winter, you can find Melburnians rugged up on the tram, oat latte in hand, exploring the cultural capital of Australia. Want to see original photographs from one of the world’s most iconic fashion photographers? Done. How about a giant earth sculpture that rotates in sync with its own soundtrack? We have that. A floating gallery that can only be seen from the water? We’ve got it too.

Melbourne’s favourite cultural conclusion to the working week, the NGV Friday Nights series is returning with a banging winter program. Kicking off Friday 10 June, the vibe-filled evenings will see a solid lineup of live performances with NGAIIRE and Kia on the bill for the launch event followed by a series of top Australian talent including Emma Donovan, Harvey Sutherland, Loure, Surprise Chef, Horatio Luna and more. 

It’s been dubbed the world’s most Instagrammable exhibition—selling out stints in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Las Vegas and Philadelphia—and is now coming to Melbourne.

After a year of cultural pause in Melbourne, 2021 is bringing the goods with more events, festivals and exhibitions than that calendar of yours can handle. The latest announced is a permanent digital gallery, The Lume Melbourne.

Its been a while since we’ve been able to saunter through the halls of the NGV and thankfully after the easing of restrictions this Friday we’ll be able to get back to it. The cultural drought is about to be quenched with a hefty new line-up of exhibitions and events at the gallery kicking off with the French Impressionism exhibition straight from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. 

The Triennial may have just wrapped up, but the NGV’s stacked winter season has only just begun across the two renowned galleries. Their Winter Masterpieces exhibition is, no doubt, slated to be the blockbuster of the year, but there are several others that should be on every culture vulture’s radar coming into the cooler months, like the just-opened We Change The World at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.

While galleries around the world are keeping their doors shut, Melbourne’s much-loved NGV International is staying open. They’ve just announced the program for the rest of 2021 and it is epic. We’ve had a chat with Senior Curator Miranda Wallace and got the scoop on everything you need to see at the gallery this year. 

Once upon a time, a little animated mouse on a steamboat stole the hearts of many, and now almost one hundred years later, that mouse is the face of one of the biggest and most-loved animation studios in the world. From humble beginnings, Disney has become synonymous with magic, childhood and all things animation. And now for the first time, the Disney: The Magic of Animation exhibition is travelling south of the equator and coming exclusively to ACMI in Melbourne. 

You might have already seen some of the announcements for RISING trickling through your feed, like the Melbourne Art Trams, the Patricia Piccinini’s showstopper exhibition and our initial announcement way back in May 2020, but today is the big day when we announce EVERYTHING. We’re not normally ones for crunching numbers, but with 133 events, including 36 world premieres, featuring 750 Victorian artists over 12 epic nights, these figures speak for themselves. 

It’s no secret we love design in Melbourne. We’re city people who love sleek interiors and we’re obsessed with that old-meets-new, industrial-chic aesthetic—give us some exposed brick and a vertical garden any day. So with that in mind, it’s no surprise that Melbourne Design Week is packed with over 300 events and exhibitions in the program. It all kicks off this Friday 26 March, but don’t stress if you haven’t had time to comb through the program because we’ve done it for you. These are the highlights for you to check out this Melbourne Design Week.

Aptly named SPOOKHOUSE, Mysterious AI's new experience will have you climb aboard a rickety cart and lead you through a twisting labyrinth of animated characters, paintings, projections and special effects.

Artist RONE needs very little introduction.

Melbourne-based artist Troy Emery is showcasing his latest solo exhibition, Sonder, at Linden New Art gallery—and just as much as it’s an aesthetic delight, the show intends to unpack so much more. 

As part of PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography, Fed Square will be covered with over 300 faces of Victorians for the next three days.

Melbourne’s beloved Royal Botanic Gardens are transforming into an exhibition space for the inaugural PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography. As both the subject matter and the setting for the work, there’s no denying the (horti)cultural significance of the gardens. 

On one hand, the capacity limits at NGV can be seen as a sort of silver lining in that you can wander through the Triennial with at least a few square metres around you, though on the other hand, it means tickets are somewhat of a scarcity—that’s why the NGV is bringing back its evening sessions for an entire month beginning on Friday 15 January.

At 250kms long, Melbourne’s tram network is the largest in the world (low-key flex), so where better to display local artists’ work than on our iconic trams? This year though, the brief is different. For the first time Yarra Trams, Public Transport Victoria, Creative Victoria and RISING are exclusively calling on First Nations artists from Melbourne and greater Victoria to submit their work, in acknowledgement of Melbourne/Naarm’s Traditional Owners and First Peoples.

Summer just got a whole lot better with the lineup announcement for the Heide Museum of Modern Art Summer Festival. Over nine weeks, the Heide sculpture park will be transformed into an outdoor event space packed with live music, dance performances and storytelling events. With both free and ticketed shows lined up, there’s plenty to keep you coming back all summer long.

As if Melburnians needed another drawcard to visit the city, the west corner of the CBD has just scored an ‘Artcade’. The new precinct has been reimagined with stunning works from the likes of Rone, Reko Rennie, Adnate and George Rose, just to name a few.

It’s been around three years since NGV’s inaugural Triennial captured Melbourne in its entirety, and today comes the good news that the exhibition will be returning this December.

You only have to walk through the front door of the NGV to realise what an amazing asset the gallery is to Melbourne.