Multidisciplinary artist Brook Andrew's The Right To Offend Is Sacred is an exploration of many of his new and majorly significant past sculptural works, responses to issues of racial identity politics in a voice that speaks for the marginalised many. His use of neon lights in particular draws strange and haunting parallels to what one would imagine a Vegas strip to be - the incongruity of this (both literally and figuratively) flashy medium matched with the sombreness of his message is both sharp and sobering; the resulting atmosphere is one that I recommend should be experienced alone. Take your time walking through this exhibition, past the newspaper clippings, old magazines and collages, the portraits and larger-than-life sculptures, and pay close attention to the stories being told before you.
While everyone's frothing over the NGV's current Viktor&Rolf exhibition (as they rightly should be), let's not forget that those of us running low on coin can still enjoy the free charms the establishment has to offer.
Cue Common Ground - a modern medley of contemporary artworks from the NGV's permanent collection, spanning across all types of artistic mediums and united thematically in categories like "anthopomorphism" and "time". The unique layout of the exhibition space alone is enough to pique gallery-goer curiosity - and make sure you take a closer look at the Tracey Emin neon piece; it's backstory is not one to be missed.