Olafur Eliasson lights up GOMA with a Brisbane-exclusive exhibition
![Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Riverbed 2014 (installation view, GOMA, 2019) / 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 / © 2014 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: N Harth © QAGOMA](https://wp.solsticemedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GOMA_Water_installationview_20191204_nharth_053.jpg?resize=1530,1020&quality=80)
A wave of colour, light and movement is set to sweep through GOMA this weekend with the opening of Olafur Eliasson: Presence, an exclusive-to-Brisbane exhibition from the internationally acclaimed Icelandic-Danish artist. Launching on Saturday December 6, the expansive showcase will transform the gallery’s entire ground floor into a shifting world of perception, landscape and sensory discovery.
Olafur Eliasson is known for boundary-pushing artworks that alter how we experience the world – from his glowing artificial ‘sun’ at London’s Tate Modern to transporting melting ice from Arctic glaciers to public spaces across Europe.
Olafur Eliasson: Presence at GOMA continues this artistic legacy, but with an added layer of collaboration.
The exhibition has been developed through an extensive, years-long partnership between the artist and QAGOMA’s head of international art, Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, who spent significant time with Olafur Eliasson and his studio team in Berlin on a curatorial exchange. Their close working relationship – grounded in conversation, shared ideas and an open creative exchange – underpins what is now considered one of GOMA’s most ambitious exhibitions to date.
QAGOMA director Chris Saines said Olafur Eliasson: Presence 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,” says Chris.
At the heart of the exhibition is Presence (2025), a newly created installation that simulates a vast, radiant sun glowing with quiet force inside the gallery. That sense of immersion continues in works like Lost compass (2013), a magnetic sculpture that hovers overhead, and the shimmering, touchable rainbow in Beauty (1993), an early piece that remains one of Olafur Eliasson’s most captivating. GOMA audiences will also recognise two much-loved interactive works – the sprawling Lego metropolis of The cubic structural evolution project (2004) and the dramatic, stone-strewn landscape of Riverbed (2014).
Three brand-new works have been created especially for this exhibition. Alongside the glowing centrepiece Presence 2025, Olafur Eliasson introduces two new pieces – Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives (2025) and Your Truths (2025). These artworks warp colour and shape to encourage audiences to focus their attention on perception itself.
Opening day on Saturday December 6 brings extra reasons to visit, including a live-streamed version of the now sold-out conversation with Olafur Eliasson and curator Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow at 11:00 am on QAGOMA’s YouTube channel, followed by pop-up performances from percussionist and composer Vanessa Tomlinson from 11:45 am to 1:45 pm.
There’s plenty more to come, with a calendar of after-hours talks, workshops, hands-on drawing experiences, kids’ tours and the return of GOMA Friday Nights – full details are available on the QAGOMA website.
Olafur Eliasson: Presence runs at GOMA from December 6 to July 12. Secure your tickets here.
This article was written in partnership with our good friends at QAGOMA.