Experience Olafur Eliasson's exhibition 'Presence' at GOMA this summer

Tue 14 Oct 2025

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. Exclusive-to-Brisbane, the exhibition has been developed in close collaboration with the artist and his multidisciplinary Berlin-based studio. The exhibition will span the entire ground floor of GOMA and include artworks by the artist from 1993 to the present. Tickets now on sale.

‘Olafur Eliasson: Presence’ highlights the power of perception and how our senses give shape to our experience of the world. 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 (illustrated), which suspends a rainbow in a veil of fine mist, to the immersive rocky landscape and small stream of Riverbed 2014 (illustrated), 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.

Beauty 1993

Riverbed 2014

The works featured in ‘Presence’ will 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. The importance of light to life is a recurring motif in Eliasson’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. 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 (illustrated), 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 Eliasson’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.

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.

Presence 2025

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

‘Presence’ is accompanied by an expansive publication produced in collaboration with Eliasson and his studio with contributions from celebrated writers Ceridwen Dovey and Robert Macfarlane, a curatorial essay and extended interview with the artist, as well as a range of exhibition merchandise.

The exhibition is complemented by QAGOMA’s interactive mobile companion, which includes an exhibition guide with curatorial insights, images, and behind-the-scenes videos, and a sense trail that invites visitors to experience selected artworks through gentle sensory prompts. When you buy your ticket to 'Presence', you’ll immediately get access to enhance your visit, so bring your headphones.

Olafur Eliasson: Presence
6 December 2025 – 12 July 2026
Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)
Gallery 1.1 (The Fairfax Gallery), Gallery 1.2 & Gallery 1.3 (Eric and Marion Taylor Gallery)
Brisbane, Australia
Get tickets to 'Olafur Eliasson: Presence’