An expansive exhibition by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson featuring major new installations, photography and sculpture opens at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) from 6 December 2025 until 12 July 2026.

Exclusive to Brisbane, the exhibition has been developed in close collaboration with the artist and his multidisciplinary Berlin-based studio.

Queensland Art Gallery l Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines said ‘Olafur Eliasson: Presence’ highlighted the power of perception and how our senses give shape to our experience of the world.

‘The exhibition will span the entire ground floor of GOMA and include more than 20 artworks by the artist from 1993 to the present,' Mr Saines said.

‘A curious and ceaselessly inventive artist, Olafur Eliasson focuses our attention towards the quietly elevated state of being “present” through art that asks us to both participate and reflect consciously in the moment.

‘From the seminal 1993 work Beauty, which suspends a rainbow in a veil of fine mist, to the immersive rocky landscape and small stream of Riverbed 2014, to a suite of new works developed specially for ‘Presence’, Eliasson’s work presses us to consider how we visually, spatially and kinetically relate to the world.

‘The immensely popular Riverbed first featured in QAGOMA’s major exhibition ‘Water’ in 2019 and was then acquired through the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Charitable Trust in 2022. This year Beauty was also acquired through the Trust, and we are thrilled to be showing both works in the upcoming exhibition,’ Mr Saines said.

Minister for the Arts John-Paul Langbroek said the exclusive-to-Queensland exhibition delivers on the Crisafulli Government’s 10-year strategy for art and culture, Queensland’s Time to Shine, and its commitment to boosting the state’s reputation as a key cultural destination.

‘This series of large-scale immersive and interactive works by internationally renowned artist Olafur Eliasson will attract locals and visitors alike for a unique and transformative arts experience,’ Minister Langbroek said.

‘This extraordinary exhibition will captivate people of all ages and interests and highlights the vibrancy of QAGOMA and the Queensland Cultural Centre ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.’

Minister for Tourism Andrew Powell said attracting this exclusive exhibition to Brisbane reiterates Queensland’s place as a burgeoning cultural hub as part of the visionary Destination 2045 Tourism Plan.

‘The exhibition is poised to deliver up to 80,000 visitor nights to Queensland, as visitors flock to experience Olafur Eliasson’s immersive body of work spanning more than three decades,’ Minister Powell said.

‘With an anticipated $14.1 million boost for the community, we’re committed to securing more events of this calibre that not only drive economic and tourism growth but also leave a lasting cultural legacy for Queenslanders.’

QAGOMA’s Head of International Art and curator of ‘Olafur Eliasson: Presence’, Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, said the works featured in ‘Presence’ would come to life through the active involvement of the audience.

‘The works exist most fully in our eyes, in our body, our movement through space, in our mind and senses – in our presence and perception,' Ms Barlow said.

'The importance of light to life is a recurring motif in Olafur’s practice, evident in works such as The Hekla twilight series 2006, twilight photographs that capture the peak of Iceland’s Mount Hekla and the surrounding snowscape; and Your lost lighthouse 2020, a modified Fresnel lamp that will send out a rainbow in long rays of light.'

‘Presence’ also premieres two new major installations that explore the polarisation of light: Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives 2025 and Your truths 2025.

‘Eliasson invites us to see the world from two or more perspectives, to playfully question the truth and substance of what we see,’ Ms Barlow said.

Vivid hues flare unexpectedly and black becomes white in Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives, which changes in surprising ways depending on the viewer’s angle of approach. In Your truths, light bounces off a white wall to illuminate a continuous rippling transparent curtain, revealing a unique multicoloured palette for each viewer depending on their position.

Also debuting in the exhibition is the title work, Presence 2025, a large-scale immersive installation that envelops the viewer as it floods the gallery space with a yellow, monochromatic light evocative of the sun’s photosphere.

‘Audiences who know Olafur’s work will recognise the strong connection of Presence with the artist’s iconic 2003 installation The weather project, which recreated a setting sun in the Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall,’ Ms Barlow said.

Also featured is The cubic structural evolution project 2004, an interactive installation that encourages audiences to collaboratively build and re-build a ‘city of the future’ from thousands of pieces of white Lego.

The development of the exhibition has been a years-long collaboration with the artist and his studio team and included multiple curatorial residencies at the Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin to oversee aspects of the exhibition’s development.

‘Presence’ is accompanied by a major publication with contributions from exhibition curator Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, British author Robert McFarlane and celebrated Australian writer Ceridwen Dovey.

‘Olafur Eliasson: Presence’ is supported by Strategic Partner Tourism and Events Queensland; Major Partners Shayher Group and Viking; Grantors Gordon Darling Foundation and New Carlsberg Foundation; and Tourism, Media and Supporting Partners.

Tickets to 'Olafur Eliasson: Presence' are on sale from 15 October.

For more information about the exhibition, or to purchase tickets, please visit www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

ENDS