Coming Soon: 'Wonderstruck' Is the Huge Free GOMA Exhibition That's Giving Yayoi Kusama's 'Obliteration Room' Another Brisbane Run
Opening at the end of June, this showcase features over 100 works, including pieces by Patricia Piccinini, Ai Weiwei and American artist Nick Cave.
Go on Brisbane, get dotty. When The Obliteration Room is on display, that's exactly what's on the agenda. Yayoi Kusama's famed interactive project doesn't just feature the circular shapes beloved by the iconic Japanese artist, as featuring in many of her pieces. Turning everyone who enters its space into a fellow contributor, this artwork is all about adding dots, more dots and then even more, all in sticker form, to completely fill every surface.
Here's how it works: you step inside a room that has been painted white from floor to ceiling. All surfaces, fixtures, furniture and objects are white — every single one. It's then up to each and every visitor to add spots of colour via those stickers. Kusama calls the process "obliteration", hence the piece's name. Joining in is as fun and therapeutic as it sounds.
Yayoi Kusama / Japan b.1929 / The Obliteration Room (installation view) 2002–present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Dimensions variable / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery. Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2012 / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © Yayoi Kusama / Photograph: N Harth © QAGOMA
The Obliteration Room and Brisbane have been intertwined since Kusama first conceived of the work, because it was developed for the Queensland Art Gallery in 2002. Since then, the piece has toured the world, but keeps returning to the River City — with its next visit courtesy of the Gallery of Modern Art's huge new free Wonderstruck exhibition across Saturday, June 28–Monday, October 6, 2025.
Initially announced at the beginning of the year as part of QAGOMA's massive 2025 program, this showcase features over 100 works hailing from 70-plus international and Australian artists. As its name makes plain, this collection from is all about awe and wonder. Expect playful pieces, imaginative creations, and works big and small. Expect extraordinary art and everyday objects morphed into marvels, too — as well as an all-ages experience, as The Obliteration Room has long provided.
Patricia Piccinini / Australia b.1965 / The Observer (installation view) 2010 / Silicone, fibreglass, steel, human hair, clothing, chairs / 220 x 140 x 48cm / Purchased 2018. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © Patricia Piccinini / Photograph: N Harth © QAGOMA
Indeed, while The Obliteration Room has always been a feature of GOMA's Children's Art Centre, witnessing and participating in the transformative process is a delight for big kids as well. That theme carries across Wonderstruck as a whole, whether it's also displaying pieces by Patricia Piccinini, Ai Weiwei and American artist Nick Cave, or from Ah Xian, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Gordon Hookey, Madeleine Kelly, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Ron Mueck, Craig Koomeeta, Jemima Wyman, Rosemary Laing, Sandra Selig, Gemma Smith, Yuken Teruya, Brian Robinson, Judy Watson and Louise Weaver.
"Wonder enters our world through play and imagination, and can be inspired by our interactions with nature and encounters with the intangible," explains Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Director Chris Saines.
"This exhibition, drawn from the gallery's collection and the rich catalogue of projects developed by QAGOMA's Children's Art Centre in collaboration with contemporary artists, also considers how wonder emerges from combinations of colour, pattern and visual illusion, and an appreciation of the extraordinary within the ordinary."
Kohei Nawa / Japan b.1975 / PixCell-Double Deer#4 (installation view) 2010 / Mixed media / 224 x 200 x 160cm / Purchased 2010 with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Kohei Nawa
Across its six chapters, other specific highlights span the wearable sculptures of HEARD from Cave; Piccinini's The Observer, featuring a child peering down from a stack of chairs; Ai Weiwei's Neolithic pottery painted in bright colours; vivid hues aplenty in Pip & Pop's Rainbow Bridge and Emily Floyd's Steiner Rainbow; Mueck's giant In Bed; and Connection from Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih, which turns cardboard boxes into an arch.
Or, Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan's contribution In Flight (Project: Another Country) will get you making sculptures fund materials to to the piece; Lightning for Neda by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian is a mirror mosaic; and Notice — Forest from Yuken Teruya refashions shopping bags.
Ron Mueck / England b.1958 / In bed (installation view) 2005 / Mixed media / 161.9 x 649.9 x 395cm / Purchased 2008. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Ron Mueck
As it frequently does given that it's home to the Australian Cinematheque, GOMA is pairing Wonderstruck with a free film program, too, exploring how the themes at the heart of the exhibition translate to the big screen. The medium's earliest days are covered via Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon — and so is Wes Anderson's fondness for pastel hues in The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The buzzing hummingbirds of documentary Every Little Thing, Studio Ghibli's wonders via My Neighbour Totoro, Michel Gondry's imaginative approach via The Science of Sleep: they're among the sights set to flicker through the gallery's cinemas as well, all between Friday, June 27–Sunday, October 5, 2025.
Yuken Teruya / Japan b.1973 / Notice - Forest 2006 / Paper and glue / Dimensions variable / Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government's Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Yuken Teruya
Gemma Smith / Australia b.1978 / Boulder prototype #2 2008 / Laser-cut Perspex / 53 x 39 x 53cm (irreg., approx.) / Gift of Dr Morris Low through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © Gemma Smith
Emily Floyd / Australia b.1972 / Steiner rainbow 2006 / Two-part epoxy paint on medium density fibreboard / Nine parts. Part a (dark blue): 54 x 131 x 60cm; part b (light blue): 82 x 160 x 60cm; part c (teal): 96 x 188 x 60cm; part d (dark green): 110 x 217 x 60cm; part e (light green): 124.5 x 245 x 60cm; part f (yellow): 139 x 275 x 60cm; part g (orange): 154 x 303 x 60cm; part h (light red): 166 x 334 x 60cm; part i (deep red): 180 x 362.5 x 60cm. / Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Emily Floyd/ Courtesy: The artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery
Alfredo Juan Aquilizan / Philippines/Australia b.1962 / Maria Isabel Gaudinez-Aquilizan / Philippines/Australia b.1965 / In-flight (Project: Another Country) (installation view) 2009 / Courtesy and © Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan / Photograph: R Fulton © QAGOMA
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian / Iran 1924 - 2019 / Lightning for Neda (installation view) 2009 / Mirror mosaic, reverse-glass painting, plaster on wood / Six panels: 300 x 200 x 25cm (each); 300 x 1200 x 25cm (overall) / The artist dedicates this work to the loving memory of her late husband Dr Abolbashar Farmanfarmaian. Purchased 2009. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Monir Shaharoudy Farmanfarmaian
Pip & Pop / Australia 2007–11 / Tanya Schultz / Australia b.1972 / Nicole Andrijevic / Australia b.1981 / 'Rainbow bridge' from 'we miss you magic land!' 2011 / Dioramas: Polystyrene, wax, fluorescent pigments, sugar, glue, glitter, synthetic polymer paint, plastic plants, plastic flowers, pipe-cleaners, modelling clay, paper, adhesive vinyl, pigment ink, beads in vitrine with internal electric lighting with Perspex inserts; installed with wallpaper: digital adhesive on paper (produced from digital file) / Four dioramas: 91 x 110 x 55cm (each); overall installed dimensions variable / Gift of the artists through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2013 / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © The artists / Photograph: K Bennett © QAGOMA
Wonderstruck displays at the Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Brisbane, between Saturday, June 28–Monday, October 6, 2025. Head to the venue's website for more information.
Top image: Yayoi Kusama. The obliteration room 2002–present. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. © YAYOI KUSAMA
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