NGV Opens Plant Life: The Nature of Design with Free Entry

The National Gallery of Victoria has opened Plant Life: The Nature of Design at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in Federation Square. The exhibition runs from 28 August 2026 to 7 February 2027, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and has free general entry.

Plant Life examines the relationship between plants and design across different periods and cultures. The exhibition moves from ancestral craft knowledge and devotional making through industrial production and the petrochemical era to current attempts to develop regenerative materials.

Examples highlighted by the NGV include leather grown from fungi, light-reactive bioplastics and fibreboard made with hemp and bio-resin. More than 60 works span furniture, architecture, decorative arts, craft, photography and film. The display draws on the NGV Collection and includes new commissions, recent acquisitions and international loans.

The exhibition considers plants as sources of shelter, food, tools, beauty and cultural meaning, while also examining the environmental costs of industrial extraction and synthetic materials. Contemporary projects demonstrate how designers are testing renewable and plant-based alternatives to plastics and other non-renewable resources.

Plant Life is presented in the NGV Design Studio on the ground level of The Ian Potter Centre. By placing historical objects, living First Nations traditions and experimental materials together, the exhibition asks how design has changed the plant world and how plant-based research could influence future manufacturing and everyday objects.