10 artworks you shouldn’t miss at free NGV Triennial exhibition

A piece of fruit duct-taped to a wall, robot dogs and a talking animatronic mouse are among the weird and wonderful works at a free NGV exhibition.

Agnieszka Pilat’s robot dogs, Bonnie Spot and Basia Spot, will be a drawcard to free NGV International exhibition Triennial.

More than 75 extraordinary art projects – including painting robot dogs, a talking animatronic mouse and a world-famous banana gaffer-taped to a wall – are on display as part of Triennial.

The free exhibition takes over NGV International every three years.

This year’s showcase will sprawl across all four levels of the Melbourne gallery until April 7, featuring contemporary works by 100 artists, designers and collectives from across the globe.

Here are the artworks you shouldn’t miss.

ngv.vic.gov.au/triennial

1. Agnieszka Pilat, Heterobota (2023)

Agnieszka Pilat with one of her robot dogs. Picture: Eugene Hyland

Polish-born, USA-based artist Agnieszka Pilat has trained a pack of robotic, AI-enabled dogs to paint for Triennial. The pooches – created by engineers at robotics company Boston Dynamics – will live and work autonomously in an “apartment and studio” that has been built on the NGV’s ground floor, with audiences able to stop by and watch as they create. Pilat imagines that, in a distant future, the paintings will be “revered as the first primitive art-making of AI-enabled robots”. She hopes the work will help demystify the applications of robotics and AI.

2. Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian (2019)

Comedian (2019) by Maurizio Cattelan. Picture: Zeno Zotti, courtesy of Perrotin and Marian Goodman.

Maurizio Cattelan.

Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s viral phenomenon, Comedian, has provoked debate and discussion around the world – and it’s tipped to have the same effect in Melbourne. The conceptual work simply comprises a banana gaffer-taped to a wall, but it has sold three times for between $A188,000 and $A235,000. Gallery staff are required replace the piece of store-bought fruit every seven to 10 days and, when attaching it to the wall, follow specific instructions dictating the angle, height and tape used. NGV senior curator Ewan McEoin said audiences were encouraged to “bring their own interpretation to what that work might mean”.

Visitor viewing Maurizio Cattelan’s work Comedian 2019 on display in NGV Triennial from 3 December 2023 to 7 April 2024 at NGV International, Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis

3. David Shrigley, Really good (2016)

David Shrigley’s Really good (2016). at Trafalgar Square, London. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

David Shrigley. Picture: Craig Gibson.

David Shrigley’s 7m-high thumbs-up sculpture was originally conceived for London’s Trafalgar Square in the immediate aftermath of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, but will bring the British artist’s dark humour to Melbourne for Triennial. The public sculpture is “characteristic of the self-conscious irony often found in Shrigley’s work, and is intended as both a satirical and sincere gesture”, according to the NGV.

4. Yoko Ono, I LOVE YOU EARTH and My Mommy Is Beautiful

Yoko Ono’s I LOVE YOU EARTH. Picture: George Darrell

Triennial features two Yoko Ono works.

Triennial will feature two works by the counterculture icon. Ono’s giant billboard exclaiming “I LOVE YOU EARTH” will be splashed across the NGV International facade. And her other work will invite visitors to write or draw reflections about their mothers and mother-like figures and display them on gallery walls. NGV curator Amita Kirpalani said of the latter: “The work requests, or demands, you put pen to paper, and include yourself in a community of voices. It will be frank and quite emotional for some.”

Yoko Ono’s My Mommy Is Beautiful in Germany, 2021. Picture: Heiko Daniels

5. Thomas J Price, All in (2021) and Reaching out (2020)

Installation view of Thomas J Price’s All In (2021) on display in the UK. Picture courtesy of Thomas J Price and Hauser & Wirth. Picture: Ken Adlard

The scale of England-born Thomas J Price’s sculptures will immediately draw in audiences, who will then be confronted with a statement about the lack of people of colour represented in public statues in the UK. Given this is a reality for Australia, too, the two works are sure to resonate at Triennial. The statues don’t depict specific people, but reflect “observed individuals and stereotypes represented in the media”, according to the NGV.

Thomas J Price. Picture: Ollie Adegboye

Thomas J Price, Reaching Out (2020). Picture: Damian Griffiths

6. Azuma Makoto, A Chaotic Garden (2023)

Flower blocks by Azuma Makoto.

The punk florist of Japan – who has previously plunged bouquets of flowers into outer space and thousands of feet below sea level – has filled a room with 130 “flower blocks” for his immersive Triennial exhibit. The blocks comprise native Australian plants that are seemingly frozen in time, and displayed alongside a multi-screen film depicting the life and death of flowers. Makoto asks visitors to “explore the complex and fragile relationship between humans and plants”.

Portrait of Japanese artist Azuma Makoto, courtesy of the artist.

7. Ryan Gander, The end (2020)

Visitor viewing Ryan Gander’s work, The end, at NGV. Picture: Aaron Francis

Ryan Gander. Picture courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.

You might hear UK artist Ryan Gander’s work before you see it. The exhibit comprises a small animatronic mouse that emerges from a hole in the wall and philosophises on some of the biggest questions facing humanity, voiced by Gander’s young daughter. The work is “representative of Gander’s canny ability to connect the everyday and the esoteric in playful yet meaningful ways”, the NGV says.

8. SMACK, Speculum (2019)

Installation view of SMACK’s Speculum (2019) on display at Matadero Madrid. Picture courtesy the artist and Onkaos.

This brightly coloured contemporary reinterpretation of iconic painting The garden of earthly delights is sure to turn heads. The major video installation by Dutch digital artists Ton Meijdam, Thom Snels and Béla Zsigmond uses “lighthearted aesthetics and popular imagery to reveal uncomfortable realities about our contemporary culture”, reflecting lonely people obsessed with images and invasive technologies, according to the NGV.

Dutch artists SMACK.

9. Maison Schiaparelli

Model Rouguy Fay wears look 6 (2021-22) from The Matador Couture collection, by Daniel Roseberry, Maison Schiaparelli

Jewellery bustier (2021-22) from The Matador Couture collection, by Daniel Roseberry, Maison Schiaparelli.

Paris couture house Schiaparelli has dressed a raft of A-listers, including Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Bella Hadid and Cardi B. For Triennial, creative director Daniel Roseberry is presenting a selection of boundary-pushing pieces from recent collections, which “conjure themes of irreverence and imagination, Surrealist wit and technical innovation”, the NGV says. A must-see for fans of high fashion.

10. Nic Brundson, (This is) Air (2023)

Render of (This is) Air by Nic Brunsdon at capacity.

Standing more than 14m tall, this balloon-like structure breathes in and out, expanding and releasing air in a natural rhythm throughout the day. After reaching capacity, the NGV commission by leading Australian architect Nic Brundson will “exhale”, releasing gusts of air and forming an array of cloudlike configurations. Then it will once again fill to capacity. The NGV says the work “invites audiences to consider humanity’s relationship to (the) essential and yet invisible element” that is air.

Render of (This is) Air by Nic Brunsdon after the structure has ‘exhaled’.