Body Adorned

Body adorned celebrates the National Gallery's rich and diverse jewellery collection through an intentionally maximalist display.

Bringing together over 370 works by First Nations, Australian, European, American, Asian and Pacific designers, artists and makers, the display honours jewellery as both an artistic mode and a form of personal expression.

Worn across cultures for centuries, jewellery carries meaning far beyond decoration-signifying identity, memory, transformation, protection, status, spirituality and more.

With each piece displayed according to the part of the body on which it is worn, Body adorned considers the rich associations jewellery evokes in relation to the body. It reflects on jewellery as a symbolic, embodied art form-positioning the body as a site of expression, ritual and narrative.

Spanning historical and contemporary practice, the works are made from a wide range of materials: metals, stones, shells, feathers, fibres, glass, plastics and found objects. They have been carved, cast, forged, strung, assembled and 3D-printed-with artists sometimes preserving tradition, at other times pushing against it.

From extreme to subtle, raw to refined, this display demonstrates the endless possibilities of ornamentation. Body adorned invites audiences to explore how jewellery reveals cultural lineage, personal identity and artistic innovation through the intimate act of adorning the body

Collection Display
22 Nov 2025 - 14 Feb 2027
Level 1, Gallery 13
Free
Happens: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Time: 10am - 5pm daily



 National Gallery of Australia View Venue
 Parkes Place Canberra A.C.T. 2600 Map

→ nga.gov.au

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