FUTUREOBJEKT is the new collectable design salon conceived by Melbourne Art Fair as a platform for the most compelling ideas in contemporary design, architecture, and the crafted object. The program brings a sharpened curatorial lens to the design landscape, amplifying the voices, practices and material narratives shaping culture today.
Envisioned as both stage and showcase, FUTUREOBJEKT assembles leading studios, galleries and makers whose works challenge convention, celebrate material intelligence, and propose new ways of living with design. Anchored by a central Design Lounge and framed by a tightly curated Talks program, it offers collectors, architects, designers and the design-curious a space to discover, connect and engage. A fair-within-a-fair, built for encounter, disruption and the thrill of the not-yet-known.
FUTUREOBJEKT is the new collectable design salon conceived by Melbourne Art Fair as a platform for the most compelling ideas in contemporary design, architecture, and the crafted object. The program brings a sharpened curatorial lens to the design landscape, amplifying the voices, practices and material narratives shaping culture today.
Exhibitors
Twenty galleries and studios will present tightly curated selections of work — from new collections created exclusively for Melbourne Art Fair to covetable pieces by some of the world’s most recognised design talents. Each FUTUREOBJEKT exhibitor has been invited by the Fair for their distinctive practice, their commitment to Australian design and craftsmanship, and, in some cases, their longstanding relationships with renowned international designers whose work they represent in Australia.
The full list of FUTUREOBJEKT Exhibitors:
Adam Cornish (Naarm/Melbourne)
Alta Forma (Naarm/Melbourne)
Agency Projects (Naarm/Melbourne)
Agglomerati x Maria Tyakina (London)
Adam Goodrum (Gadigal Country/Sydney)
Beci Orpin & Softer Studio (Naarm/Melbourne)
CHRISTOPHER BOOTS (Naarm/Melbourne)
Cordon Salon, Rosanna Ceravolo, Jordan Fleming & Marta Figueiredo (Naarm/Melbourne)
Craft Victoria (Naarm/Melbourne)
Dalton Stewart and Annie Paxton (Naarm/Melbourne)
Don Cameron (Gadigal Country/Sydney)
denHolm (Naarm/Melbourne)
Mobilia (Naarm/Melbourne, Gadigal Country/Sydney, Boorloo/Perth)
OIGÅLL Projects (Naarm/Melbourne)
OKO OLO & Charlie White (Gadigal Country/Sydney, Naarm/Melbourne)
Sozou Studio (Naarm/Melbourne)
Studio Gardner (Gadigal Country/Sydney)
Tom Fereday (Gadigal Country/Sydney)
Volker Haug Studio (Naarm/Melbourne)
Zachary Frankel (Naarm/Melbourne)
MAF X NGV Design Commission
The inaugural MAF X NGV Design Commission has been awarded to Naarm/Melbourne-based artist and designer, Anna Varendorff.
The commissioned work will be unveiled at Melbourne Art Fair 2026 before settling into its permanent home within the NGV collection.
U lights and vases, 2025
For the Commission, Varendorff will present her most ambitious composition to date of her iconic U lights and vases, expanding her hallmark of tubular forms into a striking installation of ceiling lights, suspended vases and monumental floor vessels. The suspended elements are fabricated from aluminium U-shapes, mirrored in pairs — one upright, one inverted — to create rhythmic compositions that can both hold floral and cast light. Spanning ceiling and ground, the installation is anchored by monumental floor vessels that echo the suspended forms above, grounding the work with scale and gravity.
Anna Varendorff
Anna Varendorff is an artist and designer whose practice spans jewellery, sculpture, product and lighting design. Since 2013, she has worked under the moniker ACV Studio, producing design works that are at once minimal and expressive, achieving cult recognition in Melbourne and beyond. Trained as a metalsmith, Varendorff fabricates with precision in metal, yet her works retain a poetic lightness. Defined by pared-back tubular forms, graceful arcs and slender brass or steel lines, they culminate in refined objects that merge craft discipline with industrial clarity.
Design Talks
Curated by Neil Hugh, Founder and Director of NHO, the Design Talks Program brings sharp voices together to probe the ideas shaping design today. Across fast, focused conversations, designers, architects, thinkers and makers share perspectives that challenge, clarify and expand. Designed to educate as much as provoke, the program invites audiences to listen, question, and rethink the role of design in culture and in daily life.
The full talks program will be announced in January.
