A weekend at QAG or GOMA. Which would you choose?

Fri 28 Feb 2025

Looking for a free weekend outing for the family, a spot to socilaise with friends, or maybe a relaxing space to spend some 'me time'? Head to Brisbane's most visited galleries — the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) are both nestled beside the Brisbane River and just a short stroll along the river-front from the South Bank Parklands.

QAG and GOMA are just 150 metres apart — each has a distinct artwork display focus and unique architectural personalities. QAG's characteristic concrete brutalist exterior, emerging from the modernist movement, won the most outstanding public building in Australia when it opened in 1982. GOMA, on the other hand, is defined by a dual black box/white box architectural arrangement, with a bold pavilion-style design influenced by the traditional ‘Queenslander’ home. It won both National and State awards for Public Architecture when it opened in 2006. Both buildings, in their own way, changed the face of the city’s South Bank waterfront.

What they have in common, however, is together they offer a creative and cultural hub for Brisbane and Queensland — a place where people come together to relax, to be inspired and where imagination and creativity spark as visitors young and old, from different walks of life, enjoy a stunning mix of Australian, Pacific, Asian and International art.

Queensland Art Gallery

Gallery of Modern Art

These adjacent buildings are easy to wander through, their spacious interiors exuding calm and allowing rejuvenating daylight to stream inside. QAG speaks to the Brisbane River, with its spectacular cavernous interior and central Watermall parallel with the river just outside, while GOMA and it's vast central Long Galley, is about connecting with the city, every time you step out of an exhibition space you re-engage with the Brisbane skyline and its multiple river vistas.

So now it’s up to you to choose your weekend escape — QAG, GOMA, or maybe both? Visit QAG to reacquaint yourself to our Collection favourites on permanent display — maybe it's the Picasso, Degas or Toulouse-Lautrec, or our best-loved Australian artists, or the exhibitions currently installed at GOMA.

Queensland Art Gallery

Collection highlights: International art

Surrounded by works from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (illustrated), Camille Pissarro (illustrated), and Edgar Degas (illustrated), La Belle Hollandaise (The beautiful Dutch girl) 1905 (illustrated) is a key painting by Pablo Picasso, the work donated to the Gallery in 1959, at the time this major work by one of the greatest living twentieth century masters set a world record price at £55,000. Watch the auction to go back in time before you visit.

Pablo Picasso La Belle Hollandaise 1905

Camille Pissarro La lessive à Éragny (Washing day at Éragny) 1901

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Tete de fille (Head of a girl) 1892

Edgar Degas (Dancer looking at the sole of her right foot, fourth study) c.1882-1900

Collection highlights: Australian art

The work of Australian artists have been collected by the Queensland Art Gallery since its foundation in 1895, however few works in our Collection have enjoyed as much popularity as Under the jacaranda 1903 by R Godfrey Rivers (illustrated). After over a century Spirit of the Plains 1897 (illustrated) by Sydney Long still remains one of the great beauties of Australian art, depecting a girl leading her captivated birds in an elegant dance across a moonlit plain; while The end of the story c.1911-12 (illustrated) by Australian artist E (Emanuel) Phillips Fox depicts a woman in contemplation, reclining upon a chaise lounge.

R Godfrey Rivers Under the jacaranda 1903

Sydney Long Spirit of the Plains 1897

E Phillips Fox The end of the story c.1911-12

Collection highlights: Contemporary Australian art

The Contemporary Australian Art Collection is rich in paintings, major installation, cross-media and moving image works which are central to contemporary art practice. The Collection includes an outstanding group of works by major Queensland artists.

William Robinson Rainforest and mist in afternoon light 2002

Fiona Hall Australian set (from ‘Paradisus Terrestris Entitled’ series) (detail) 1998–99

Collection highlights: Indigenous Australian art

Artistic expressions from the world's oldest continuing culture are drawn from all regions of the country in the Gallery's holdings of Indigenous Australian artworks.

Walangkura Napanangka's Untitled (Tjintjintjin) 2006 (illustrated) depicts the rockhole and cave site of Tjintjintjin, to the west of Walungurra (Kintore) in Western Australia. The symbols in this painting map out the area's geographical features, through which ancestor figure Kutungka Napanangka passed on her travels across the Gibson Desert during the creation time.

Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa's  Goanna Story c.1973-74 (illustrated) is from one of the traditional dreaming stories, and this work shows four of the reptiles moving towards a waterhole.

Walangkura Napanangka Untitled (Tjintjintjin) 2006

Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa Goanna Story c.1973–74

Drawing from the Collection

On any day at QAG, get creative and pick up our free drawing materials and draw from your favourite works on display. Just grab a drawing board, paper and pencil, then take inspiration from the art around you in either the permanent Australian or International Art Collections.

QAG Cafe

If you work up an appetite on your visit, enjoy a bite to eat at the QAG Cafe. Perfect for some quiet contemplation beside the Watermall's Dandelion fountains, reflection pond and Sculpture Courtyard or head inside beside Tamika Grant-Iramu's striking landscape mural of frangipani and bougainvillea.

Gallery of Modern Art

QAGOMA's exhibition program spans contemporary visionaries, view our current exhibitions.

Archie Moore: kith and kin

This is the first time kith and kin — the much-anticipated Australian debut — of the installation by Kamilaroi/Bigambul artist Archie Moore, has been displayed since it secured the prestigious Golden Lion Award for Best National Participation at La Biennale de Venezia in 2024. You have the opportunity to experience this internationally significant work in Brisbane before it’s shared with the UK’s Tate.

Free children activities

Children are our future appreciation group, we welcome families with children of all ages to the Children’s Art Centre. Visit GOMA to experience activities in collaboration by artists.

Cinema

The Australian Cinémathèque at GOMA provides an ongoing program of film and video that you're unlikely to see elsewhere. Search what weekend matinee is screening when you visit. GOMA is the only Australian art gallery with purpose-built facilities dedicated to film and the moving image, and hidden beneath the stage and only revealed for special screenings is our much-loved 1929 Wurlitzer Style 260 Opus 2040 Pipe Organ, its original home Brisbane’s Regent Theatre which opened in November 1929. Find out how it ended up at GOMA.

GOMA Bistro

Over at GOMA, overlooking Brisbane’s iconic riverfront and showcasing seasonal, locally sourced produce, the GOMA Bistro invites visitors to unwind in a relaxed alfresco setting. While dining, take in The Big Hose — a permanent, vibrant play sculpture on the river bank.

Tony Albert and Nell The Big Hose 2022–25

If you still can’t decide what to do, then let our Volunteer Guides make it easy for you with one of our free guided tours. These take place in both Gallery’s on most days, lasting 30-40 minutes. Here’s the link to the QAGOMA Events Calendar for tour times.

While you’re here, why not pop-in to one of the three QAGOMA Stores packed with inspiring books, stylish accessories, designer homewares and cultural curios to take home.

We look forward to welcoming you to QAGOMA. Enjoy your visit!

Sunset viewing

Got an evening hour to spare? The Gallery of Modern Art’s Night Life 2018 (illustrated) is James Turrell’s architectural light work and the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. As the sky shifts to dusk, Night Life animates the Gallery in an ever-evolving pattern of intensifying and diffusing coloured light from within that envelops the building. This immersive artwork has found a place in the hearts and minds of countless Brisbane residents and tourists.

Daily from sunset to midnight, the light sequence runs for 88 minutes.

James Turrell Night Life 2018

Elliott Murray is Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)

Our two galleries are a short walk from the city and adjacent to South Bank Parklands, and only 150 metres apart. QAG's riverfront entry is near Melbourne St and Victoria Bridge, and both buildings have an entrance from Stanley Place.

Parking for the Cultural Precinct is available in two neighbouring carparks under the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and State Library of Queensland (SLQ), both accessible via Stanley Place.

QAGOMA is right next to the Cultural Centre Busway station and a short walk from the South Brisbane train station and the South Bank CityCat and Ferry terminal.

Daily: 10.00 am – 5.00 pm
Open from 12 noon Anzac Day
Closed Good Friday, Christmas Day & Boxing Day