While traveling on my spontaneous two week trip to Australia, I decided to peruse the National Gallery of Victory (NGV) in central Melbourne to see some aesthetic works of art. Needless to say with their large collection of traditional paintings, sculptures, stained glass, and pottery, I was not disappointed by their selection. Most of the exhibitions here are completely free to enter. Only the rotating featured exhibit has an entrance fee. Since it was one related to Asia (where I currently reside), I decided to skip it and see the other permanent parts of gallery instead. Most of them were pretty awe-inspiring with pieces of art from all around the world:
The first room we entered had European oil canvas paintings that I found to be quite thought-provoking. Some of the art were beautiful portraits of woman and landscapes, but others depicted quite sad themes like war and death. I really liked how the portraits were juxtaposed on the bright red wall–I had to walk around this room several times so I could fully let the context of it all set in.
In the connecting hallways were displays of pottery from various centuries (I was especially fond of the vase with booty painted on it), sculptures, a rocking chair, and other interesting works; like a horse with a lamp on its head. On the top floor is a beautiful stained glass window that illuminates the performance hall. They also had some really derpy paintings of animals, and one wall of art depicted a hint of bestiality, but it was discrete and as tasteful as possible.
My favorite exhibit was definitely the neon upside-down kanji room. It only exemplifies the difficulty of learning kanji as a westerner:
The final room we entered had shapes made completely out of pages from books which gave them a unique texture. There was also the “Ship of Time” exhibit you could walk through to find the inner peace depicted in Zhuangzi’s parable. Once again it was a lot to take in at once, but I managed to successfully cross over:
Overall this was probably the best free museum I have stumbled upon in my travels. I was impressed with all of the diversity it had to offer, and despite my initial jetlag I had a lot of fun reading about the exhibits. Be sure to check out the NGV if you ever are in Melbourne! There is also the Eureka Skydeck nearby where you can see a beautiful view of the the city.