Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson will bring his boundary-pushing vision to GOMA this summer, with an unmissable Brisbane-exclusive exhibition taking over GOMA’s entire ground floor. Opening on Tuesday December 6, Olafur Eliasson: Presence has been developed through a years-long collaboration with the multidisciplinary artist’s Berlin-based studio and combines iconic early works with major new installations, photography and sculptures.

Featuring more than 20 artworks from 1993 to now, Presence invites audiences on a multi-sensory journey to experience how perception, movement and the senses shape our view of the world. Among the highlights are Beauty (1993), where a rainbow shimmers through a veil of mist, and Riverbed (2014), a rocky landscape complete with a flowing stream that was first presented at QAGOMA in 2019. The cubic structural evolution project (2004) invites audiences to collaboratively build a ‘city of the future’ from thousands of white Lego pieces.

The exhibition will also debut title work Presence (2025), a monumental new installation that floods the gallery with golden light reminiscent of the sun’s photosphere, recalling Olafur Eliasson’s iconic The weather project where a setting sun was recreated at Tate Modern. Alongside these are new commissions that shift with the viewer’s perspective, ensuring every visit is unique.

Promising to bring light, colour and sensation to Brisbane, Olafur Eliasson: Presence runs until July 12, 2026.

Tickets are now on sale for this unmissable exhibition, and our friends at QAGOMA are offering a very special discount – 25 percent off all tickets between October 15–20, 2025. Be quick to secure yours.

Image one: Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Presence (detail) 2025. © 2025 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Studio Olafur Eliasson

Image two: Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967. Gallery of Modern Art / © 2014 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: N Harth © QAGOMA

Image three: Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Firefly city (detail) 2025. © 2025 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Jens Ziehe

Image four: Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Beauty 1993 (installation view, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy, 2022). © 1993 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Ela Bialkowska, OKNOstudio

Image five: Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Your lost lighthouse 2020. © 2020 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Jens Ziehe