The VCA Art Grad Show returns this week with an extraordinary display of new work by graduating students at the University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).
Featuring more than 160 works, the 2025 Art Grad Show is one of the largest exhibitions of emerging visual art in the country, offering audiences insight into the latest developments in contemporary art thinking and practice today.
The exhibition encompasses a wide range of contemporary art disciplines, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, video, performance, photography and more.
Georgia Boseley, Exile, raffia and wood, 2025. Image supplied.
Acting Head of Art at the VCA, Dr Kiron Robinson, said the VCA Art Grad Show represents the culmination of years of dedication, hard work, and a deep engagement of the graduating students with their craft and creative practices.
"The VCA graduates are the next generation of Australian artists and cultural leaders. The Graduation Exhibition is a milestone event for their studies and is completely unique in its breadth and depth. I am immensely proud of the students and their ability to reflect themselves and their voices in such outstanding works."
Among this year's highlights is work by Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing and Printmaking) student Sarah Gilsenan exploring the tension between preservation and destruction of the items we chose to keep, discard, or display.
"I am interested in what is deemed useful and seek to reframe the meaning of familiar materials. Architectural fragments and personal detritus are treated like souvenirs, or relics, carefully wrapped and preserved for display," Sarah said.
Sarah Gilsenan, New Bureaucratic Works V 2.0 (Reclining Fax, Workin' 9 to 9, Ciggie Burns and High Returns), paper, aluminium, found carpet, perspex, metal, fabric and plastic chair, 2025. Image supplied.
Also exhibiting in this year's show is Bachelor of Fine Arts (Photography) student Felix Oliver, who said his work aims to conjure the feeling of trying to recall a dream from the night before.
"This year, I have been investigating ways structural devices can hold, distort, or mimic this sensation. I am particularly interested in the way disjointed familiarity can be embedded into photographic representation, material forms and installation.
"I see my work as a portal to nowhere, an entrance into unmarked space. My practice has become an attempt at constructing these portals—glimpses into something that feels reachable, but never wholly accessible."
Felix Oliver, Hall Runner, stone slate, hand-made redwood window, chromogenic print, 2025. Image supplied.
The 2025 VCA Art Grad Show is on display from 27 November-4 December at the University of Melbourne's Southbank Campus and will be open between 11am-5pm daily. Read more and organise your visit. Visitors to the VCA Art Grad Show can also view Buxton Contemporary's latest exhibition Hany Armanious: Stone Soup.
