Fashion Artists

Fashion Artists explores the work of artists and designers critiquing, questioning and celebrating the specificities of fashion culture, industry and artisanship across an array of media. Through drawing, film, photography, soft sculpture, jewellery and fashion, designers and artists reflect fashion’s textured portrayals of beauty, meaning, identity and more.

The term ‘fashion artists’ derives from the 2016 National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) exhibition Viktor and Rolf: Fashion Artists curated by Thierry Maxime Loriot. Viktor and Rolf use the term to describe themselves and their practice, the uninhibited creative ethos of all great artists and designers, and the constant desire to push the boundaries within their practice.

This term has been adopted and expanded in this exhibition and features work by artists and designers: Akira Isogawa, Amy Cottrell, Atong Atem, Bobby Corica, Collagism, Iltja Ntjarra artist Mandy Malbunka, Jenna Lee, Justin Ridler, Kate Rohde, Matea Gluščević, Michael Zavros, Phong Chi Lai, Romance was Born, Scotty So, Strateas Carlucci, Yarrenyty Altere art collective artists Marlene Rubuntja and Ronda Sharpe, Yanggurdi and Youkhana.

Dr. Paola Di Trocchio is a leading fashion curator, writer and speaker. In her 20-year career at the National Gallery of Victoria, she curated and co-curated 22 fashion and textiles exhibitions including 200 Years of Australian Fashion. In 2025 she completed her PhD on self-fashioning and rapid curation through a case study of Anna Piaggi.

Images courtesy of © 2025 MARS Gallery.