Nipa Doshi unveils MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission

London-based designer and studio Doshi Levien co-founder Nipa Doshi presents a lively new work A Room of My Own at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Doshi is the fourth female artist to have her work presented in the gallery’s Collection of Contemporary Design and Architecture.

Joining Tatiana Bilbao, Bethan Laura Wood and Christien Meinderstma, Nipa Doshi is the latest female creative to have contributed strikingly original work for the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission.

Her unique submission will be unveiled at a special event at the NGV at 7pm on Thursday 25 September, where she will present a keynote address to the attending guests. The work combines two bespoke artistic mediums: a new typeface, marking the artist’s first foray into typography; and a handcrafted, multidimensional cabinet.

Exquisite artistic detailing within Doshi’s submission.

For the immersive and vibrant cabinet, Doshi took strong inspiration from portable Indian shrines known as Kavad. As a space for personal reflection and meditation, the cabinet’s interior design elements pay homage to the generations of women who have inspired the artist.

As a work that fuses individual history with private memory, A Room of My Own is a dynamic exploration of the people and experiences that make us who we are. Australian Design Review speaks with Doshi to learn more about what inspired her new work and how she feels to have it on display at the NGV.

A space to nourish the mind

Serving as tribute to the significant women in Doshi’s life, the drawings within the decorative shrine feature everyone from an avant-garde 1970s Indian actress and an elderly matriarch from the artist’s childhood to a compassionate nurse who cared for Doshi when she was at one of the most vulnerable points in her life.

Doshi’s strikingly original typeface.

“It’s a travelling shrine,” Doshi says of the final design, “and if you look at the cabinet, it’s an homage to influential women in my life. It’s a space to write; to nourish the mind, the body and the soul. The idea is that these influential women in my life are always with me.”

Despite the restricted dimensions suggested by the work’s title, A Room of My Own extends far beyond the limits of just one interior. Doshi reflects that one of her earliest memories of her Indian childhood is of the incredible women around her, so it was this broad sense of community that informed the cultural spine of this work and its illustrated subjects.

“When I was the recipient of the MECCA NGV Commission, I wanted to bring that energy of storytelling through furniture, and that sense of community and wellbeing,” she says.

2025 MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission recipient Nipa Doshi.

Doshi emphasises that while she is well-known for her characterful drawings, her work for the NGV commission marks the first instance in which she has produced abstract drawings of the women who have personally affected her. It is also the first time this kind of artistic discipline within Doshi’s output has been acquired by a gallery for public display.

“I’m really proud of the breadth of work that I’ve created,” Doshi says. “I’m presenting my drawings and so it’s a very important moment for me, because I really push the boundaries of what it means to be a designer. I feel that I’m an industrial designer by training, but I’ve also created a new typeface! I think it shows that if you apply yourself as a creative person, you can really design anything.”

‘There’s a whole world out there’

Ahead of Doshi’s presentation at the NGV, she is both relieved and excited that the hard work is finished and ready to be enjoyed by the public. She remains eager to underline the flexibility of design and the comforts in its multi-faceted practices.

Doshi’s remarkable drawings for her NGV submission.

“There’s not one way to do design for me,” she says. “It’s also important for people to know that design is as much about storytelling: sometimes the story is the object and sometimes the object is the story.”

The desired outcome of her exhibit is to question what creativity can achieve, beyond the strict parameters of labelling one thing as art and one thing as graphic design. She wishes above all else that those viewing her work be awakened to the myriad influences that can shape a person’s soul and the work that they produce.

“There’s a whole world out there,” she says brightly. “I think people need to realise the beauty of the world that we live in.”