Forty-three students made the cut from more than 1,100 VCE art portfolios submitted across Victoria. Their work now occupies two gallery levels at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square, in a free exhibition that closes on 19 July 2026.
The show is Top Arts 2026, the 32nd edition of the National Gallery of Victoria’s annual survey of outstanding VCE visual arts graduates. It draws from the 2025 cohort of Art Making and Exhibiting and Art Creative Practice students, and it does not look like a school art show. The materials on display range from ceramic teapots crawling with polymer clay creatures to large-scale oil pastel canvases that fragment the human body.
Amaia Mercer, a Balwyn High School student whose series Tea party uses teapots to explore human control over animals, said the key to surviving VCE art was following a genuine obsession. “Employ themes and create work that you are truly passionate about,” Mercer said. “Genuine passion will sustain you through the challenges of VCE. Constantly revising or creating purely to meet exam expectations can be overwhelmingly draining.”
Mercer’s sculptures sit alongside works such as Milo Friedman’s Obduktion, a set of fragmented canvases that address body dysmorphia through oil pastels, and a range of installations built from found objects, digital media, and fashion. The 43 selected artists were chosen from a field of more than 1,100 applicants, making this one of the most competitive Top Arts line-ups in the exhibition’s history. The selection process prioritised innovative use of materials and techniques, a shift that the NGV has noted is more pronounced in the 2026 edition than in earlier years.
The exhibition is free, open daily from 10am to 5pm at the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square. It sits within the VCE Season of Excellence, the state government’s annual celebration of top-performing students across visual arts, design, music, and drama. For anyone who wants to go deeper than the gallery walls allow, the NGV has published detailed student profiles, video interviews, and shots of working folios on its website. Regional schools that cannot make the trip into the city can request virtual tours designed for classroom use.
NGV Melbourne’s official Instagram described the show as “packed with bold ideas and big imaginations” and urged visitors to “come and discover the great artists of tomorrow. The strongest discovery might be how these students talk about their own work. The artist statements are direct, often startlingly personal, and they sit alongside each piece rather than being hidden in a catalogue. For VCE students currently working on their own folios, those statements are worth as much as the art itself.
Time is tightening. The exhibition has been open since 13 March, but it ends on 19 July 2026, which leaves about six weeks of viewing from early June. No tickets are required, and the gallery does not take bookings for general entry, so the only barrier is forgetting it is there. Visitors who turn up on a Saturday expecting a quiet gallery may find it busy with NGV Teens events like Top Arts After Hours, which run periodically and include artist talks and mood-board workshops. Those sessions are free but have limited capacity, so checking the NGV website ahead of time is sensible.
Because Top Arts is embedded inside a major public gallery, it is easy to combine with the rest of Fed Square. The Australian Centre for the Moving Image sits directly across the courtyard, and the Koorie Heritage Trust is a three-minute walk down the Yarra side of the precinct. Flinders Street Station and at least four tram routes (70, 75, 96, 109) deposit visitors at the square’s doorstep. Parking is scarce and expensive, so public transport is the practical choice.
The show does something that standard gallery exhibitions rarely attempt: it hands the explanatory power to the artists while they are still teenagers. For anyone keen to catch the next wave of Melbourne painters, sculptors and digital artists at the point of emergence, the remaining weeks are the only window. After 19 July, the works return to their creators and the gallery resets for 2027.
Quick Facts
National Gallery of Victoria
Australia’s oldest public art museum, founded in 1861, with two sites in Melbourne: NGV International and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square. It presents major exhibitions, collection displays, and education programs including Top Arts.