A summer of design: events to see across Australia
A summer of design: events to see across Australia
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Summer in Australia is an energising season for design lovers, with plenty of inspiration beckoning outside of studio walls. Experience new ideas, discover emerging talent and reconnect with the people shaping our design landscape with Australian Design Review’s guide to summer design events below.
Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria
The NGV in Melbourne has a fruitful line-up of art and design events running throughout the season. The Gallery’s summer blockbuster exhibition at NGV International is Westwood | Kawakubo, presenting 150 pieces by two globally celebrated designers and mavericks Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons. Also at the NGV International, view the 2025 NGV x Mecca Women in Design Commission A Room of My Own by London-based designer Nipa Doshi, or take the kids to Let’s Party! Fashion for Kids, an exhibition with hands-on activities designed to introduce children to the world of fashion in an inspiring setting designed by Danielle Brustman.
Amble down St Kilda Road to the NGV’s Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square to catch two free exhibitions before they close on 1 February. The first is Rigg Design Prize 2025, which displays the work of 35 Australian designers under 35 who were nominated for the triennial prize, including the winning ceramic vessels by Alfred Lowe. The second standout exhibition is Making Good: Redesigning The Everyday, exploring how designers are reinventing the products and systems that shape our daily lives.
DONE/UNDONE curated by Joseph Gardner
Until 7 February
As Craft’s 2025 Visionaries curator, Vogue Living‘s style editor at large Joseph Gardner presents DONE/UNDONE, an exhibition of 50-plus artists working across medium, scale and practice. Adam Goodrum, Bolaji Teniola, Nicole Lawrence and many more feature in one of Craft’s largest exhibitions to date, exploring the creative process as a space of constant negotiation – a series of decisions to build, erase, repeat or let be. DONE/UNDONE is about that intuitive moment when a maker chooses to pause, to push further or to dismantle entirely.
Melbourne Art Fair
19-22 February
Melbourne Art Fair returns to Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in February with a promise to foster the development of new audiences for contemporary art. Alongside the usual display of work by Australasian living artists, this year the Fair will debut its inaugural Design Commission in partnership with the NGV, which has been awarded to Melbourne-based artist and designer Anna Varendorff. The Fair also presents the first edition of FUTUREOBJEKT, a collectible design salon. Twenty galleries and studios will each present a highly curated selection of works at FUTUREOBJEKT, including new collections designed exclusively for Melbourne Art Fair. While you’re there, look out for the Champagne Bollinger Bar, designed by Brahman Perera with brushed brass and soft velvet.
Younghusband x Quid Pro Quo
14-20 January
Quid Pro Quo is a site-responsive exhibition and public program engaging with the storied past and evolving future of the Younghusband wool store. Bringing together artists connected to the building and the Kensington community, the project explores memory, place and exchange, looking toward possible futures.
Queensland
Olafur Eliasson: Presence
Until 12 July
This Brisbane-exclusive exhibition at QAGOMA draws from the three‑decade career of one of the world’s most influential living artists. Spanning GOMA’s ground floor galleries, Olafur Eliasson: Presence includes important early works and expansive site-specific installations from the Icelandic-Danish artist, many developed especially for Presence.
Archie Moore’s kith and kin
Until 18 October
In case you haven’t had a chance to yet, there’s still time to marvel at Archie Moore’s kith and kin, which traces the artist’s Kamilaroi and Bigambul relations over 65,000-plus years in fragile chalk on blackboard. The work, which won Venice’s prestigious Golden Lion for best national pavilion, was relocated to QAGOMA in September 2025. Catch it before the exhibition ends in October and the work moves again to Tate, London.
New South Wales
The Hidden Line: Art of the Boyd Women
Until 15 February
Bundanon’s major summer exhibition, The Hidden Line: Art of the Boyd Women repositions the creative practices of five generations of women from one of Australia’s most prominent artistic dynasties, revealing a remarkable matrilineal line of creativity and inheritance. Showcasing more than 300 works spanning painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography, printmaking, textiles, filmmaking and design, this exhibition brings into focus the often-overlooked creative force of the women whose contributions have been central to the family’s enduring legacy. The exhibition features works by 23 artists from the Boyd family, including Helen a’ Beckett Read, Margot Beck, Amanda Boyd, Cassandra Boyd, Charlotte Boyd, Doris Boyd, Emma Minnie Boyd, Hermia Boyd, Jessica Boyd, Lenore Boyd, Lucinda Boyd, Lucy Boyd, Polly Boyd, Yvonne Boyd, Lucy Boyd Beck, Ellen Boyd Green, Florence Boyd Williams, Mary Nolan, Alice Perceval, Celia Perceval, Kitty Perceval, Tessa Perceval and Pip Ryan.
Western Australia
Pippin Drysdale: Infinite Terrain
Until 6 April
Throughout Perth’s hot months through to April, the Art Gallery of Western Australia presents the work of Pippin Drysdale with Infinite Terrain, a landmark retrospective honouring the 40-year career of the internationally renowned ceramicist. It offers a rare opportunity to explore the 82-year-old’s adventurous spirit, collaborative processes and her singular ability to interpret the world – and particularly the vastness of colour in the landscape – through porcelain.
Perth Design Week program launch
11 February
Perth Design Week (PDW) will formally launch its 2026 PDW 10 program at the WA Museum Boola Bardip on the night of 11 February. The event also celebrates the opening of the Chirriger Moort exhibition, showcasing the three-decade creative journey of leading Noongar artist and designer Peter Farmer, whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, public art, fashion, interior design and the built environment. Be the first to find out what’s in store for the next festival, running from 19 to 26 March.
South Australia
Heart of Darkness in the Barossa
Until 22 March
At its Seppeltsfield estate location in the Barossa Valley, JamFactory is putting on Heart of Darkness, a visually rich showcase of contemporary craft objects that appeal to Gothic sensibilities and feature symbols, motifs and aesthetic cues that draw on our innermost fears and dark desires. The estate is also home to Fino Restaurant, Seppeltsfield Wines and Vasse Virgin.
Exhibitions at JamFactory Adelaide
Until 12 April
There are two exhibitions at JamFactory’s Adelaide CBD gallery space this summer. In Gallery One, MAKE Award: Biennial Prize for Innovation in Australian Craft and Design showcases designer/makers as part a major award initiated by Australian Design Centre, including the 2025 MAKE Award winner Cinnamon Lee for her work NOCTUA. Meanwhile, in Gallery Two, Rhythms of Home is a new solo exhibition by Iranian-Australian ceramic artist Golshad Asami. Incorporating poetry, Persian script, patterns from Islamic tilework and motifs of tribal carpet weaving, Golshad speaks to her connection to home; a culture where art and life are deeply entwined.
Tasmania
Heartwood: Tasmanian Women in Timber
Until 8 February
Timber is deeply embedded in Tasmania’s design story, and women have long shaped how it is used, valued and reimagined. Heartwood is a tribute to the women whose skill, persistence and imagination have carried timber craft forward in Tasmania. Exhibitors include Sally Brown, Pippa Dickson, Linda Van Niekerk, Linda Fredheim, Gay Hawkes and Ellen Nora Payne, with a new acquisitive commission by furniture designer-maker Laura McCusker the centrepiece.
Australian Capital Territory
National Gallery of Australia’s Fifth National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain
Until 26 April
The Fifth National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain features 10 large-scale, immersive and multidisciplinary installations by established and emerging First Nations artists at the NGA. The 2025 triennial’s artistic director, contemporary artist Tony Albert, weaves together projects by Alair Pambegan,  Aretha Brown, Blaklash,  Dylan Mooney, Hermannsburg Potters, Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre and Vincent Namatjira, Jimmy John Thaiday,  Naminapu Maymuru-White,  Thea Anamara Perkins,  Yarrenyty Arltere Artists and Grace Kemarre Robinya, and Warraba Weatherall. The projects resonate with ideas about rebirth and cycles of cleansing.
Skin Deep at Canberra Glassworks
Until 25 January
The phrase ‘skin deep’ often describes superficial beauty; however, a new exhibition of glasswork by Gabriella Bisetto – curated by Margaret Hancock for Canberra Glassworks – challenges this meaning. At Skin Deep, surfaces become “not the limit of perception but the very site of it”. Bisetto has created her forms in kiln manipulating the glass through the processes of heating, cooling, slumping, scarring, prodding and tampering that mirrors the body’s own choreography of making and regeneration.
Northern Territory
2025 Telstra NATSIAA in Darwin
Until 26 January
Finalists’ work from the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards are on display at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin until 26 January 2026. This landmark exhibition showcases powerful works that speak to identity, Country, culture and resilience. Spanning categories from bark painting and sculpture to multimedia and works on paper, Telstra NATSIAA captures the diversity and innovation of Indigenous art today.
National
Kevin McCloud and Tim Ross on tour
5-15 February
Grand Designs‘ Kevin McCloud and comedian-broadcaster and self-described design nerd Tim Ross are reuniting for a national live tour in February. It’s the first time they’ve shared a stage since 2019, a collaboration rekindled with the release of their hit podcast Tim & Kev’s Big Design Adventure. Celebrating a decade-long friendship and a shared obsession with architecture and design, Live in Interesting Places invites audiences into intimate live shows in some of Australia’s most inventive spaces. The pair will explore architecture, sustainability and creative thinking, blending insight, humour and personal stories. Most dates are sold out, but tickets are still available for Brisbane and Perth shows.
Visit award-winning interiors
When deciding where to eat, shop, wander, work or study remotely this season, why not be guided by interior design? The IDEA 2025 winners and highly commended lists are a good place to start. While we don’t recommend showing up at the doorsteps of any homes in the IDEA residential categories, there are plenty of hospitality venues, retail outlets and other publicly accessible spaces to visit.
Brisbanites have the privilege of access to the Overall Project of the Year and Hospitality category winner Central, a Hong Kong-inspired restaurant and basement dumpling bar designed by J.AR Office. Meanwhile, Sydneysiders can enjoy a tipple at Bar Julius, the kaleidoscopic Colour category winner connected to The Eve Hotel in Red Fern, also highly commended for its use of colour (and both designed by SJB). For Melburnians shopping at Chadstone this summer, why not visit Retail winner July Chadstone, designed by In Addition, or behold the recycled paper lantern designed by Edward Linacre Studio and Kerstin Thompson Architects for Readings bookshop, which took out the Sustainability award? The IDEA 2025 shortlist also offers a helpful inventory of well-designed spaces to check out around the country.
Lead image: Installation view of Let’s Party! Fashion for Kids: Designed by Danielle Brustman on display at NGV International from 28 November 2025 to 3 May 2026. Photo: Phoebe Powell.
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