Victoria’s art scene is about to burst with blockbuster exhibitions

A season of immersive experiences, world-class collections, and bold artistic vision transforms galleries across the state.

Victoria’s galleries are staging a cultural moment of extraordinary scale. From immersive, multi-sensory environments to sweeping retrospectives of global art, this season promises experiences that are as ambitious as they are unforgettable. Visitors can wander through expansive installations, encounter works that challenge perception and spark reflection, and witness the convergence of history, innovation, and contemporary creativity. Across the state, the art world is making a statement: this is a season not to be missed.

The Vinyl Factory: Reverb

WHEN: 22 MAY – 31 AUG

WHERE: ACMI, Melbourne

Originally staged at London’s 180 Studios, this immersive exhibition celebrates 20 years of artistic collaboration through vinyl culture and music’s impact on art, fashion, film, and social movements. Explore works by Stan Douglas, William Kentridge, Virgil Abloh and more, interact with remixable vinyl loops, wander a six-hour jam film, and lose yourself in the Listening Room’s curated sonic sanctuary for deep, transformative listening.

 

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Yarrangany

WHEN: From 08 MAY

WHERE: Platform Arts, Geelong

Yarrangany is a compelling collective exhibition celebrating the enduring roots of First Nations identities worldwide. Drawing on ancestry, Country, language, and memory, the works—both contemporary and traditional—explore kinship, belonging, and cultural renewal. Through a rich interplay of story, place, and practice, Yarrangany creates a shared space for reflection, connection, and the living threads that bind communities across generations and borders.

 

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Kate Gorman: Sirens

WHEN: FROM 30 MAY

WHERE: 43 Mair Street, Art Gallery of Ballarat

In Siren, Ballarat artist Kate Gorman explores the dual meanings of the mythical and modern siren to reflect on Victoria’s fragile coastal landscapes. Through delicate, half-human sculptures, Gorman entices viewers while revealing the hidden threat of tourism, suburban growth, and human impact, capturing the tension between the allure of natural beauty and the environmental peril lurking beneath.

 

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Lisa Waup | after ever here

WHEN: UNTIL 16 AUG

WHERE: ARARAT GALLERY TAMA

after ever here at Ararat Gallery TAMA presents the evocative practice of First Nations artist Lisa Waup, weaving print, sculpture, textiles, and body adornment into layered narratives of memory, ancestry, and connection to Country. Grounded in material histories, each work transforms found and gifted fibres into living stories, reanimating objects with renewed meaning. Guest curated by Coby Ann Edgar, the exhibition celebrates resilience, identity, and the enduring intimacy of materiality.

 

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The Transient Nature of Things

WHEN: UNTIL 2 AUG

WHERE: WARRNAMBOOL ART GALLERY

The Transient Nature of Things reflects on the delicate balance women navigate between motherhood, creativity, and selfhood. Featuring bold, large-scale works by Marie Cook, Elizabeth Gower, and Ann Newmarch, the exhibition honours the feminist legacies of the 1970s and 80s, elevating domestic and craft practices into powerful political statements, and exploring how the intimate realities of motherhood are inseparable from artistic life and expression.

 

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Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso

WHEN: FROM 23 MAY
WHERE: SHEPPARTON ART MUSEUM

Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso showcases 37 extraordinary paintings and sculptures from Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, never before seen in Australia. Spanning Impressionism to post-war abstraction, the exhibition features works by Bonnard, Braque, Cezanne, Dalí, Gauguin, Hepworth, Léger, Matisse, and Picasso, tracing nearly a century of radical artistic innovation and celebrating the visionary patronage of Julian and Josie Robertson.

 

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It’s a mammoth May for the arts scene in Victoria with chances to witness exclusives and once-in-a-lifetime exhibitions right on your back doorstep. Don’t sleep on it!