The NGV Gala, a highlight of Australia’s cultural calendar celebrating art, music, fashion and food, returns on Saturday 14 December 2024 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. In 2024, the spectacular late-night event offers guests first-access to the NGV’s world-exclusive exhibition, Yayoi Kusama. Curated by the NGV especially for Australian audiences, the never-before-seen blockbuster exhibition charts the artist’s eight-decade practice through close to 200 works, including the global unveiling of her most recent immersive infinity mirror room.
Born in Japan in 1929, Yayoi Kusama is one of the world’s most important and recognised artists working today. She is renowned globally for her singular and idiosyncratic use of pattern, colour and symbols to create immersive, thought-provoking and intensely personal works of art that transcend language and borders. She has made indelible contributions to key art movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including minimalism, pop art and feminist art.
Displayed across the entire ground floor of NGV International, Yayoi Kusama is one of the most comprehensive retrospective exhibitions of the artist’s work ever presented globally and the largest ever mounted in Australia. The exhibition traces her entire career – from her childhood in the 1930s through to the present-day – through a rich selection of paintings, sculpture, collage, fashion, video and installation.
As the opening event of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition, the NGV Gala also offers guests an opportunity to experience NGV International as-never-before with visually stunning installations, experiential zones, performance spaces, fine drinks and a specially designed food menu. Guests will be able to indulge in cocktails by Four Pillars Gin throughout the evening including a Yuzu Highball inspired by Yayoi Kusama.
The event will include a headline performance, which in previous years has included showstopping sets from Troye Sivan, Baker Boy, G Flip, Sneaky Sound System and Salt-N-Pepa. In previous years, the star-studded guest list has included Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Elizabeth Olsen, Winnie Harlow, Poppy Delevingne, Liam Hemsworth and Shalom Harlow.
Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV and co-chair of the NGV Gala said: ‘In 2024, the NGV Gala will be a technicolour celebration of Kusama’s singular worldview. Over her more than eight decade career Kusama has developed an instantly recognisable personal style that blurs the boundaries between performance art and fashion.’
Edwina McCann, Editorial Director and Publisher, Conde Nast titles Australia and News Prestige, and co-chair of the NGV Gala said: ‘Yayoi Kusama is one of the most influential and creative women working today – and her iconic work has graced the pages of Vogue magazines the world over. Vogue Australia is proud to be once again partnering with the NGV on the Gala’s sixth iteration celebrating the NGV’s world-premiere retrospective exhibition, Yayoi Kusama.’
The inaugural NGV Gala in 2017, held to coincide with the Australian-exclusive exhibition The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture, built upon the NGV’s rich legacy as a destination for art, design and fashion. Most recently in 2023, the NGV Gala coincided with the opening of the NGV Triennial, a gallery-wide exhibition of contemporary art, design and architecture.
On 29 August, NGV Gala pre-sale tickets will be available to NGV subscribers. For early access to tickets, sign up to the NGV eNews here: ngv.melbourne/gala-subscribe. General sale tickets will be available from 4 September via the NGV website.
The NGV Gala will take place at NGV International on Saturday 14 December 2024.
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