Take a look at clouds from both sides now
Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has had a long and happy association with Brisbane and now his magisterial exhibition at GOMA will likely create a whole new generation of fans, especially since it involves a massive interactive Lego table.
Have you ever seen a cloud being born? No, neither have I. Until now. For all the scale and grandeur of the work of Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, it is a small suite of photos showing a cloud forming in a valley in Iceland that really caught my imagination.
A major exhibition by the Berlin-based artist is now on at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) until July 12, 2026.
Globally renowned for installations that challenge how we perceive ourselves and the world around us, Eliasson’s work has included transporting melting Arctic ice that had broken away from glaciers to public spaces across European capitals and an all-encompassing ‘”sun” in the cavernous Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern.
Exclusive to Brisbane, Olafur Eliasson: Presence occupies GOMA’s ground floor with major installations, sculptures, photo series and more, that invite visitors through shifting environments – from immersive works that play with light, colour and perception to a meticulously constructed riverbed.
It’s The morning small cloud series that really drew me into the show and left me accessing Joni Mitchell from my memory bank. (“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now.”)
It was the artist himself, who was here for the exhibition opening, who mentioned in passing that the exhibition included photos of “a cloud being born” and that one line won me over. Eliasson is very philosophical about what he does in a no-nonsense kind of way.
He has been involved with QAGOMA for some years and we have seen his work before, including his enticing Lego installation which fills the Long Gallery at GOMA now. I remember Riverbed, which has been reinstalled for this show. It’s basically a rocky Icelandic hill set up in the gallery with a stream running through it. On my first encounter with it some years ago I remember cussing because I had scuffed a new pair of shoes navigating it.
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But as the artist explains, it can get us off balance and that may be a good thing. He’s a bit of a Zen master, actually, and his idea of the transformative and meditative qualities of gallery-going are quite inspiring, although when I put it to him that someone had described him as a guru he responded: “Maybe they meant gooey?” He has a rather refined sense of humour.
But that cloud being born is such a poetic idea and it connects us to nature and wonder in an incredibly enticing way. It makes me think of that famous work of Christian mysticism, The Cloud of Unknowing.
QAGOMA director Chris Saines says the exhibition embodies the artist’s belief in the audience as co-creators, with each visitor experiencing the artwork uniquely as they move through and interact with the exhibition.
“Informed by his expansive interests in architecture, design, science, the environment, psychology and wellbeing, Eliasson’s work investigates how we give shape to our experience of the world,” Saines says.
“From the large-scale title work Presence 2025, which simulates a vast sun moving and shifting with energy inside the gallery, to Lost compass 2013, a magnetic sculpture that hovers above us as we consider life’s path, this exhibition keeps us in the present moment.”
In a first for the artist, Presence has been developed through QAGOMA head of international art Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow’s residency with Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin.
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‘Olafur’s work reminds us that we each perceive the world differently’
Barlow says the exhibition invites us to explore light, land and life, and to reflect on how we connect with one another and the world around us.
“Olafur’s work reminds us that we each perceive the world differently, even when standing side by side, and leads us to playfully reconsider how we make sense of what we perceive,” she says. “This exhibition rewards curiosity, slowing down, taking our time. As we explore the artworks, we are sparked to ask: ‘What am I seeing?’ What we first see, or sense, will change.”
The exhibition brings together iconic early works such as the shimmering, touchable rainbow Beauty 1993 with QAGOMA’s much-loved interactive installations, the ever-evolving Lego city of The cubic structural evolution project 2004 and the immense literal landscape of Riverbed 2014.
Three major new works have been created for the exhibition. As well as Presence 2025, the polarisation works Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives 2025 and Your Truths 2025 warp colour and shape to focus our attention on perception itself.
An expansive publication produced in collaboration with Eliasson and his studio accompanies the exhibition and includes contributions from celebrated writers Ceridwen Dovey and Robert McFarlane, a curatorial essay and an extended interview with the artist.
The exhibition is also accompanied by the cinema program Perceptions of Light, which explores the powerful ways filmmakers harness light to craft meaning, character and setting, from film noir’s mysterious shadows to the French New Wave’s drive for authenticity with its use of natural light.
Olafur Eliasson: Presence is complemented by QAGOMA’s interactive mobile companion, which includes an Exhibition Guide with curatorial insights, images and behind-the-scenes videos, along with a Sense Trail that invites visitors to experience selected artworks through gentle sensory prompts.
The exhibition 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 and a generous group of Exhibition Patrons.
Olafur Eliasson: Presence continues at GOMA until July 12, 2026.