King Charles Awarded This Mumbai-Born Designer An MBE, Now Her New Work Is At NGV Melbourne
- SAGA Magazine
- Oct 10
- 3 min read
Mumbai-born, London-based designer Nipa Doshi has brought an intimate, deeply personal work to Australian audiences, unveiling A Room of My Own and a debut typeface as part of the 2025 MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission at NGV International.
The commission, now in its fourth year, invites globally acclaimed designers to create world-premiere works for the NGV Collection, spotlighting the voices and practices of women in design.
A Personal Shrine In Design Form
Doshi’s A Room of My Own takes the form of a handcrafted, multidimensional cabinet that is at once a shrine, dressing table, and repository for memory. Inspired by the kaavad — portable shrines from India — the work merges functional design with emotional storytelling.
Opening the cabinet doors reveals a series of painted abstract portraits: an avant-garde 1970s Indian actress, a matriarch from her childhood neighbourhood, and a nurse who cared for her at a vulnerable moment.
Together, they form a lineage of women who have profoundly shaped her life, inviting viewers into Doshi’s inner world.
“This commission gave me extraordinary creative freedom,” Doshi said. “I could weave the narrative strands of my design practice into a collectible piece that embodies my values as a woman in design.”
Extending Spatial Thinking Into Typography
Alongside the cabinet, Doshi debuts a large-scale, hand-painted typeface that translates her aesthetic into letters, numbers and symbols.
Hovering between communication and composition, the typeface draws from architectural plans and diagrams, pushing her spatial sensibility into a graphic realm.
The exhibition space also features a moving-image work intertwining animated sequences of this typeface with footage of the cabinet, echoing Doshi’s fusion of memory, imagination, and craftsmanship.
A Global Career Honoured in Australia
This commission marks another high point in Doshi’s distinguished career.
As one half of Doshi Levien, the design studio she founded with Jonathan Levien in 2000, she has worked with leading furniture houses and exhibited at premier cultural institutions, including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and MoMA in New York.
In 2024 she was awarded an MBE by King Charles for her contribution to design.
Tony Ellwood AM, NGV Director, called Doshi “a leading figure of global design,” noting the privilege of bringing an ambitious new work into the NGV Collection.
MECCA X NGV Melbourne
The MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission is MECCA’s single largest commitment to an Australian cultural institution and forms part of its M-POWER initiative, which champions gender equality by fostering opportunities for women and girls in the arts.
MECCA founder Jo Horgan AM said, “Nipa challenges norms and infuses her cultural identity into everything she does. Her work reminds us of the value of women’s voices, experiences, and craftsmanship.”
Since 2016, MECCA has partnered with NGV to showcase and support female creatives, from visual artists like Kaylene Whiskey and Naomi Hobson to designers like Tatiana Bilbao and Bethan Laura Wood.
Nipa Doshi: MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission 2025 is on display at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne, until 1 April 2026. Entry is free.
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