NGV's Plant Life Exhibition Explores Plant-Based Design and Indigenous Knowledge
From 28 August 2026 to 7 February 2027, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in Melbourne will host Plant Life: The Nature of Design, presented by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). This exhibition showcases over 60 pieces in diverse mediums, examining the connection between humans and plants while advocating for plant-based materials as sustainable alternatives to finite resources. According to senior curator Ewan McEoin, the historical importance of these materials is paramount. Featured innovations include bio-masonry blocks by Kate Scardifield, a bio-leather jacket crafted by the Awajún people, Joris Laarman's Ply Loop Chair, and RMIT University's Mycelium Wildfire Jacket, underscoring the involvement of global Indigenous communities with nature.
Key facts
- Plant Life: The Nature of Design is on view at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 28 August 2026 to 7 February 2027.
- The exhibition features more than 60 works spanning furniture, architecture, decorative arts, craft, photography, and film.
- Senior curator Ewan McEoin says the show imagines a future where plants return as the dominant source.
- Display plinths and surfaces are made from Plantbord, a hemp board developed by Joost Bakker and Forest One, bound with Plantics bio-resin.
- Kate Scardifield's Urgent Is The Rhythm bio-masonry blocks combine over a tonne of algae biomass with oyster-shell waste.
- The Awajún people of the Peruvian Amazon and Mozhdeh Matin created a bio-leather jacket from shiringa tree sap.
- Fernando Laposse's Resting Place daybed uses avocado-seed pigment and marigold flowers to address Mexico's avocado-driven social and ecological crisis.
- Bart Schilder's Banet dining chair generates approximately five kilograms of carbon dioxide, about one seventh of an equivalent plastic chair.
Entities
Artists
- Ewan McEoin
- Joost Bakker
- Kate Scardifield
- Mozhdeh Matin
- Emma Håkansson
- Joris Laarman
- Fernando Laposse
- Bart Schilder
- Judith Glover
- Tien Huynh
- Mohamad Arekha Bentangan
- Alexi Freeman
- Formafantasma
- Crafting Plastics
- EAST Architecture Studio
- Ed Linacre
- Broached Commissions
Institutions
- National Gallery of Victoria
- NGV
- The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
- Forest One
- Plantics
- Edition Office
- Crafting Plastics
- Lo Silk
- RMIT University
- Dezeen
- National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)
Locations
- Melbourne
- Australia
- New South Wales
- Queensland
- Peruvian Amazon
- Peru
- Lima
- Mexico
- Vietnam
- Tan Chau
- Mekong Delta
- Milan
- Italy
- Amsterdam
- Netherlands
- Bratislava
- Slovakia
- Beirut
- Lebanon