A colourful art exhibition with a sculpture and letter painting on the walls.

Melbourne's must-see exhibitions

From giant interactive installations to pop-up galleries featuring internationally renowned art, these exhibitions cannot be missed.

Free exhibitions

Three people interacting with a neon light installation in a gallery.
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Distraction

An exhibition that plugs into the torrent of content and places we go when craving distraction.

Designer Nipa Doshi standing in front of her installation of designed pieces at the National Gallery of Victoria.
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MECCA X NGV Women in Design Commission: Nipa Doshi

Designer Nipa Doshi explores beauty, plurality and diversity in her handcrafted cabinet.

Black and white photograph from the 1960s of model, Twiggy, wearing a mini-dress at the Melbourne Cup.
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Swinging 60s

Did the sixties really swing in Victoria? A new exhibition from the Old Treasury Building.

An artist painting in a workshop with brightly coloured murals on the wall, artist's materials on the floor.
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Creative Acts: Artists and their inspirations

Step inside the unseen inner worlds of artists at State Library Victoria.

Two people seated below a neon sign.
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The Story of the Moving Image

A permanent exhibition that journeys through the past, present and future of the moving image.

Historic photo of protesters at a women's rights demonstration.
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Protest Melbourne

An exhibition about Victoria's long history of public protest.

Animator and filmmaker Adam Elliot working on a claymation set, adjusting characters.
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Making Memoir of a Snail

Explore handmade sets, props and characters from Adam Elliot's claymation film Memoir of a Snail.

Looking up from ground view at a person jumping off a futuristic building.
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Ayoung Kim – Delivery Dancer's Arc: 0° Receiver

The Korean artist creates a multiverse that blurs boundaries between space, time and self.

A woman walking through a display with shelves of military-style food packages.
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Taste of Combat

Honouring the vital work of the Catering Corps and the evolution of military food.

An early watercolour painting of Melbourne's Yarra River.
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Yarra: Stories of Melbourne's River

Explores the chequered history of the stream we call the ‘city’s river’.

A colourful woven artwork with different textures and patterns representing a map.
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Hyperworlds: Unreal Cartography

An exhibition from Allanah Sarafian exploring maps as emotional and ideological objects.

A drypoint etching in monotones depicting an industrial scene.
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Louise Donovan: Common Ground

Nineteen everyday moments in intimate drypoint by Melbourne artist, Louise Donovan

A mostly blue artwork with white, scribbled squares all over it, creating a textural pattern.
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Make Your Mark

A bold new exhibition from the mark-making artists of Bayley Arts.

A person holding paintbrushes stands in an art studio with a colorful abstract painting hanging on the wall.
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Anna Pelc: All the Places I’ve Been

A retrospective exhibition that brings together artworks created over the past decade.

Cartoon of a movie camera topped with tiny figures.
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Behind the Lines: Are We Rolling?

An exhibition exploring all the twists and turns of another turbulent year in Australian politics.

A black and white detail of a bridge pylon showing metal and stone construction.
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Greg Branson: Manifesto Melbourne

This exhibition invites viewers to see Melbourne through the lens of influential photographers.

An abstract, dark sculpture resembling two seahorses against a bright blue background with wavy lines.
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Frances Loriente: What Would We Be if We Were Under the Sea

This exhibition by Frances Loriente explores our connection to the sea and its creatures.

Korean artwork of a butterfly and tubular flowers.
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Stories of Blessing: Modern Echoes of Minhwa by Minhwa Group

Korea’s traditional folk art, rooted in ancient Goguryeo wall paintings.

A photograph from artist, Hilary Dodd, showing the bland rear wall of a high school classroom.
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Hilary Dodd: Surging Through Exits When the Bell Goes

An exhibition from a design-led research project examining aesthetics of high school environments.

A close up of a woman's eye with pink roses beside her face.
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Abundance: The Pleasure of Plenty

Australian artists celebrating beauty and sensory richness.

Blockbuster exhibitions

Two individuals talking to each other inside Melbourne Museum at night, with blue lighting.
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Nocturnal: Museum After Dark

Experience Melbourne Museum after hours, when the doors stay open and the night belongs to adults.

Elton John in the 1970s wearing large spectacles and satin suit with Cher wearing Bob Mackie midriff-revealing strappy gown and Diana Ross wearing feather and sequin gown.
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DIVA

From opera stars to pop icons, celebrate the power and creativity of the diva.

A person taking a photo of two mannequins dressed in colourful clothing in a fashion exhibition.
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Westwood | Kawakubo

NGV’s summer exhibition pairs two icons of the fashion world, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo.

People dressed at F1 drivers with helmets on, leaning back as if seated.
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The F1 Exhibition

The F1 Exhibition makes its long-awaited debut in Australia.

Events, talks and tours

A wall covered in framed images and photographs and displayed very close together.

Art and Heritage Collection Tour

Take a free guided tour of the art and heritage collection at Melbourne Town Hall.

The back of two people standing and looking at an 18th century oil painting in a heavy gold frame hanging on a white gallery wall.
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Best of NGV International Tour

Join an expert for a guided tour to uncover the unexpected and overlooked within the NGV Collection.

People on a tour at the Immigration Museum, looking over a table with a video display.

Immigration Museum Guided Highlights Tour

Immigration Museum Guided Highlights Tour

An impressionist painting of trees in blossom.
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The Lost Impressionist Art Tours

Discover Melbourne's artistic story and its connection to Monet with this unique group walking tour.

Last updated on Mon 3 Nov 2025

Only In The City

Only in this City of Ours
People milling around Fed Square at night.

Melbourne's essential night-time events

From hidden laneway markets to epic pop-ups, Melbourne gets lit once the lights go out.

A crowd of people sitting on picnic blankets at an outdoor cinema at sunset.

The best pop-up and outdoor cinemas in Melbourne

Find the best outdoor cinema, pop-up theatres and free movies.

A view of the Southbank city skyline and Yarra River at night.

Win a $2400 school holiday staycation

Score a luxe hotel stay, shopping vouchers and more, only in the city.

Discover more

Georgian-style doll's house on a stand in a room with period furnishings including armchair and footstool, draped curtains and paintings.
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Home Comforts

Experience Georgian and Regency family life ‘at home’ at the Johnston Collection.

An ant moving a green circle on a rock.
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A velvet ant, a flower and a bird

Step into a garden of knowledge anchored by three familiar figures from nature.

Artwork showing grey-washed sketches of a chaise lounge and lamp with another green chaise lounge and a bisected grey circle.
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Marise Maas: The Knot

Raw, expressive paintings capture the absurdity of life’s knotty moments.

An abstract landscape painting in green and earthy tones.
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Melissa Boughey: Step Outside

Melissa Boughey’s wetland studio offers new way of seeing.