Olafur Eliasson, Yayoi Kusama, Archie Moore, Patricia Piccinini: QAGOMA 2025's Program Is Packed with Must-Sees
A number of beloved artworks are returning to Brisbane — including Eliasson turning GOMA into a riverbed again, and Kusama's sticker-happy 'The Obliteration Room'.
The big names on QAGOMA's 2025 program read like an art lover's dream dinner-party list: who wouldn't want to spend time with Olafur Eliasson, Yayoi Kusama, Archie Moore and Patricia Piccinini? Brisbanites and folks visiting from out of town can do just that with their artwork, at least, whether exploring an Australian-exclusive exhibition dedicated to the Icelandic Danish artist who once built an indoor riverbed inside the Gallery of Modern Art or seeing Indigenous Aussie talent Moore's history-making Venice Biennale Golden Lion-winning kith and kin. No strangers to the River City, Kusama and Piccinini will have pieces featured in a showcase called Wonderstruck.
For locals, the 2025 lineup reads like a list of reasons to make regular dates with GOMA and Queensland Art Gallery. If you're elsewhere in Australia, consider it motivation to holiday in the Sunshine State several times. The year's program has already begun, of course, thanks to The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. On display until the end of April, it boasts 500 works by 70 artists and collectives — and as each APT is when it fills QAGOMA every three years, it's a sight to behold.
Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Riverbed (installation view, GOMA) 2014 / Water, rock (volcanic stones [blue basalt, basalt, lava], other stones, gravel, sand), wood, steel, plastic sheeting, hose, pumps / Dimensions variable / Purchased 2021. The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Charitable Trust Collection: The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Charitable Trust, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © 2014 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: N Harth © QAGOMA.
Thanks to Beauty, visitors will see a rainbow in a veil of mist as well — and via Your Psychoacoustic Light Ensemble, audio waves will become visual.
Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Beauty 1993 / Installation view: Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy, 2022 / Spotlight, water, nozzles, wood, hose, pump / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: The artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles / © 1993 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Ela Bialkowska, OKNOstudio.
"Olafur Eliasson's artworks suggest new ways of seeing and experiencing. His practice, spanning diverse installations and other works, invites reflection on our relationships — with ourselves, the environment, culture, and society," said QAGOMA Director Chris Saines
"The exhibition will feature a range of artworks, many never before seen in Australia, and will include two new site-specific installations created especially for our expansive galleries."
Yayoi Kusama. The obliteration room 2002–present. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. © YAYOI KUSAMA
Between APT11 and Olafur Eliasson, Wonderstruck will take over GOMA from late June–early October — and as the name makes plain, this 100-plus-artwork collection from 70-plus artists is all about awe and wonder. The full list of pieces that'll be included hasn't yet been revealed, nor has the roster of talents involved, but the wearable sculptures of HEARD from Nick Cave (the American artist, not the Australian musician) will be among them. Also, get ready to pop stickers everywhere, because so will the return of Kusama's The Obliteration Room.
From late September — a month later than initially announced — Moore's kith and Kin will make its Australian debut. When the First Nations artist earned Australia the top gong at the Olympics of the art world for the first time ever, he did so with an exhibition curated by QAGOMA's Ellie Buttrose, and with a date with Brisbane locked in for this year. Gifted to the galleries permanently, the piece didn't just make history with its Venice Biennale accolade. A hand-drawn genealogical chart that spans back 65,000 years, it also chronicles it.
Archie Moore / kith and kin 2024 / Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024 / Photographer Andrea Rossetti / © the artist / Images courtesy of the artist and The Commercial.
Similarly on the way to South Brisbane before 2026 hits: marru | the unseen visible, which showcases works by Danie Mellor; Great and Small, heroing the role of animals in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture; and a dive into the space where devotional imagery and pop culture cross paths via The God of Small Things: Faith and Popular Culture, with oleographs by Raja Ravi Varma at its centre, but works by Natee Utarit and Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan also featuring.
Pieces by artists such as Kenneth Macqueen, Vida Lahey, William Bustard, Gwendolyn Grant, Joe Rootsey and Sidney Nolan will be a part of Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s. Tony Albert, Michael Cook, Brenda L Croft, Destiny Deacon, Fiona Foley, Genevieve Grieves, Tracey Moffat, Michael Riley, Darren Siwes, Leah King Smith and Christian Thompson are among the talents set to be in the spotlight via Snap Blak: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Photography From the Collection. And Queensland's Pat Hoffie will display a range of works on paper in I have loved/I love/I will love.
Danie Mellor / Ngadjon-jii/Mamu peoples / Australia b.1971 / Dark star waterfall (still) 2023–24 / Digital projection / Courtesy: The artist / © Danie Mellor.
Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art 2025 Program
Until Sunday, April 27, 2025 — The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art
Saturday, March 15–Sunday, August 3, 2025 — Danie Mellor: marru | the unseen visible
Saturday, June 21, 2025–Monday, May 3, 2027 — Great and Small
Saturday, June 21, 2025 –Monday, October 5, 2026 — The God of Small Things: Faith and Popular Culture
Saturday, June 28–Monday, October 6, 2025 — Wonderstruck
Saturday, August 16, 2025–Monday, January 26, 2026 — Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s
Saturday, August 30, 2025–Sunday, September 13, 2026 — Snap Blak: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Photography From the Collection
Saturday, August 30, 2025– Sunday, February 1, 2026 — Pat Hoffie: I have loved/I love/I will love
Saturday, September 27, 2025–Sunday, October 18, 2026 — Archie Moore: kith and kin
Saturday, September 27, 2025–Sunday, October 18, 2026 — Inscribing a Life
Saturday, October 4, 2025–Sunday, March 1, 2026 — Contraptions
Saturday, December 6, 2025–Sunday, July 12, 2026 — Olafur Eliasson
Michael Riley / Kamilaroi/Wiradjuri peoples / Australia 1960– 2004 / cloud (portfolio) (detail) 2000 / Inkjet print on banner paper / Ten sheets: various dimensions / Purchased 2002 / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © Michael Riley Estate.
Archie Moore / kith and kin 2024 / Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024 / Photographer Andrea Rossetti / © the artist / Images courtesy of the artist and The Commercial.
Queensland Art Gallery's 2025 exhibitions, plus Australian Cinémathèque's 2025 lineup — all of which will occur at Stanley Place, South Brisbane — visit the venue's website.
Top image: Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Your psychoacoustic light ensemble (installation view, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, 2024) 2024 / Spotlight, glass lens, mirror foil, tripod, transducer, embedded computer system / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: The artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / © 2024 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Pierre Le Hors.
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