Potter Museum of Art

Potter Museum of Art Temporarily closed for the installation of our next exhibition.

Announcing our next exhibition: Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the Gum Tree.Gum trees are everywhere, all across Australia. Alt...
18/06/2026

Announcing our next exhibition: Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the Gum Tree.

Gum trees are everywhere, all across Australia.

Although there are hundreds of species of varying shapes, sizes, textures and scents, they carry a collective nostalgia and familiarity that can transport us — to a childhood backyard, a camping trip or a particular summer afternoon.

Our upcoming exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art invites you to explore this iconic tree as a source of creative inspiration for artists across centuries, one with deep cultural and ecological significance.

Across three gallery floors, Ngarn Wa’ngal (which translates to ‘breathing for us’ in Woi Wurrung language) brings together colonial, twentieth century and contemporary works, sparking broader conversations about identity, sovereignty, climate and continuity.

Curated by Alisa Bunbury and Sophie Gerhard.

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Wendy Hubert, Wirlumarra (ghost gum), 2024. © Wendy Hubert/Copyright Agency

Are you a UniMelb student dreaming of a career in the arts?We’re on the lookout for Gallery Attendants to help bring our...
14/06/2026

Are you a UniMelb student dreaming of a career in the arts?

We’re on the lookout for Gallery Attendants to help bring our exhibitions to life!

✨ Connect visitors with world-class exhibitions and programs
✨ Based on the Parkville campus
✨ Casual employment with 3 - 6.5 hour shifts

Applications close Sunday 21 June at 11:59pm.

🔗 To view the full position description, selection criteria and to apply, head to: https://potter-museum.unimelb.edu.au/about/opportunities/gallery-attendant

A velvet ant, a flower and a bird has now closed. 🐜 🌷 🦉Across three floors, visitors were guided by three figures from n...
07/06/2026

A velvet ant, a flower and a bird has now closed. 🐜 🌷 🦉

Across three floors, visitors were guided by three figures from nature, tuning into the intelligence of the natural world around us.

Curated by Chus Martínez
Curatorial: Charlotte Day, Pippa Milne
Exhibition Management: Philippa Brumby
Registration & Collection Management: Meg Taylor
2D Design: Ana Dominguez Studio
Graphic Design Delivery: Stephanie Yap
Exhibition Design: Nguyen Le
Audio Visual Lead: Jack Farley
Engagement: Leela Schauble, Tim Walsh, Gabrielle Capes
Academic Engagement: Kyla McFarlane, Shirley Liu
Public Programs: Erin Milne, Nicky Pastore, Isabel Frias Corona
Learning & Outreach: Eloise Breskvar
Audience Engagement: Jacob Taylor, Gala Hazel
Installation & AV: Lidia Byrne, Andrew Goddard, Don Gray, Sam Karmel, Lexi Kerr, Jordan Marani, Lucy Nguyen-Hunt, James Paul, Abe Pedroza, Maree Prokos, Simone Tops and Otherly
Lighting Design: MEGS Lighting
Construction: Rightside Creative Solutions

Participating artists: Adrian Mauriks, Agnieszka Polska, Alan Craiger-Smith, Alexa Karolinski & Ingo Niermann, Alexandra Copeland, Ann Lislegaard, Anouk Tschanz, Anthony Romagnano, Barbara A Swarbrick, Benjamin Armstrong, Brent Harris, Carol Murphy, Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran, David Noonan, Derek Tumala, Din Matamoro, Eduardo Navarro, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Harold Munkara, Heather B Swann, Helen Ganalmirriwuy Garrawurra, Helen Maudsley, Ian Wayne Abdullah, Inge King AM, Ingela Ihrman, Jane Jin Kaisen, Joan Jonas, John P**e, Josie Papialuk, Judith Pungkarta Inkamala, Julie Mensch, Kate Daw, Lauren Burrow, Liss Fenwick, Lorraine Jenyns, Malcolm Howie, Margaret Rarru Garrawurra, Marian Tubbs, Mel O’Callaghan, Mia Boe, Miles Howard-Wilks, Nabilah Nordin, Naomi Hobson, Noemi Pfister, Noriko Nakamura, Percy Grainger, Pippin Louise Drysdale, Rivane Neuenschwander & Cao Guimarães, Rosslyn Piggot, Rrikin Burarrwaŋa, Salvador Dalí, Taloi Havini, Tamara Henderson, Teelah George, Tessa Laird and Tony Warburton.

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Installation view of A velvet ant, a flower and a bird, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Photography by Christian Capurro, Astrid Mulder and Darren Gill.

05/06/2026

In this hypnotic video work, two artists turn their attention to the aftermath of Carnival in Brazil. 🐜🟢🐜🟣🐜🟠

Rather than depicting the festivities themselves, ‘Ash Wednesday’ attends to what is left behind—the confetti— a symbol of excess, colour and fleeting joy that is repurposed by ants as material for labour, movement and survival.

See ‘Quarta-feira de cinzas / Epilogue’ by Rivane Neuenschwander and Cao Guimarães as part of our latest exhibition open for the final time today.

05/06/2026

How do plants resist colonisation?

Julia Mensch follows the life of a plant indigenous to the Americas—amaranth— which was cultivated for thousands of years, supressed under colonial rule and now re-emerges as a resilient ‘super-weed’.

In collaboration with singer Sofía Viola, this history and the Indigenous knowledges attached to it, have been translated into song.

See the work for the final time tomorrow as part of A velvet ant, a flower and a bird. Open 11am to 5pm.

Inside this endangered co**se flower is artist Ingela Ihrman. Co**se flowers cleverly imitate the putrid stench of rotti...
04/06/2026

Inside this endangered co**se flower is artist Ingela Ihrman.

Co**se flowers cleverly imitate the putrid stench of rotting meat to attract then trap insects. This exceptional plant exposes the limitations of viewing flowers as passive, decorative or powerless.

View it as part of A velvet ant, a flower and a bird, open for the final time tomorrow 6 June.

〰️

Photos by Darren Gill.

Malcolm Howie was a largely self-taught botanical illustrator living with an intellectual disability who captured fungi ...
04/06/2026

Malcolm Howie was a largely self-taught botanical illustrator living with an intellectual disability who captured fungi the moment they emerged. 🍄

Howie earned the respect of botanists and mycologists for his paintings which captured in watercolour with extraordinary precision what dried specimens could not.

See these accurate and incredible renderings of Victorian fungi from the University of Melbourne's Herbarium as part of A velvet ant, a flower, and a bird.

Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm. Closing 6 June.

〰️

Installation view of A velvet ant, a flower and a bird, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Malcolm Howie, Watercolour paintings of Victorian fungi from the 1930s 1931-35, from The University of Melbourne Herbarium, School of BioSciences Naarm. Photography by Christian Capurro (image 1 and 3) and Astrid Mulder (image 2).

This large-scale mural is inspired by the magnolia tree— one of the world’s oldest flowering plants. 🌸Dating back over 1...
04/06/2026

This large-scale mural is inspired by the magnolia tree— one of the world’s oldest flowering plants. 🌸

Dating back over 100 million years, (before modern pollinators like bees even existed), magnolias have witnessed extraordinary spans of geological time, surviving dramatic shifts in climate and landscape.

‘Magnolia lover’ by Noriko Nakamura was commissioned for A velvet ant, a flower, and a bird. Closing Saturday 6 June.

ONE WEEK LEFT 🐜 🌷 🦉 Step into a garden of knowledge and be guided by three familiar figures from nature in our latest ex...
29/05/2026

ONE WEEK LEFT 🐜 🌷 🦉

Step into a garden of knowledge and be guided by three familiar figures from nature in our latest exhibition.

A velvet ant, a flower and a bird is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm. Closing 6 June 2026.

〰️

Images 1-4 and 8-10: Installation view of A velvet ant, a flower and a bird, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Photography by Darren Gill.

Images 5-7: Installation view of A velvet ant, a flower and a bird, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Photography by Astrid Mulder.

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Parkville, VIC

Opening Hours

Tuesday 11am - 5pm
Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 11am - 5pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm

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