Wonderstruck — the wondrous in art

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Iran 1924-2019 / Lightning for Neda 2009, Installation view 2019 QAG / The artist dedicates this work to the loving memory of her late husband Dr Abolbashar Farmanfarmaian. Purchased 2009. QAG Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Monir Shaharoudy Farmanfarmaian Estate / View full image
'Wonderstruck' (28 June – 6 October 2025) explores the wonder that can be found in the ordinary and the extraordinary. Presented throughout the ground floor of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), the free exhibition invites visitors on a journey from spectacular large-scale artworks to captivating small treasures and immersive experiences.
The experience of wonder can both inspire art and be felt in its presence. Across painting, sculpture, photography, video, jewellery, glass, installation, and interactive artist projects, ‘Wonderstruck’ brings together more than 100 artworks by over 60 international and Australian artists from QAGOMA’s Collection.
Through six thematic groupings, ‘Wonderstruck’ takes us on a journey, invites us to engage our imaginations and sense of play, and to immerse ourselves in colour, pattern and illusion. The works in the exhibition encourage us to pause and contemplate the wonder that can be found in nature, and in our interactions with the intangible and the sacred. Finally, we marvel at flight: a simple act for birds, but for us, transcendence.
Extraordinary within the Ordinary
Witnessing acts of courage, kindness, strength, or overcoming adversity, has the power to move us deeply. Ron Mueck’s hyperreal sculptures invite us into the minds of their subjects, offering an aperture into the fragility of the human experience. Visitors might detect something different in the expression of the woman, bringing their personal experiences to a viewing of the works.
We see a multitude of lives represented on a miniature scale in NS Harsha’s monumental triptych We come, we eat, we sleep and are reminded that life is a process, and that no one exists in isolation. There is beauty in the intimacy of the individuals depicted, connected to each other through the perpetual cycles of life.
Ron Mueck In bed 2005

Ron Mueck, England b.1958 / In bed 2005 / Mixed media / 161.9 x 649.9 x 395cm / Purchased 2008. QAG Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Ron Mueck / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA / View full image
N S Harsha We come, we eat, we sleep 1999-2001

N S Harsha, India b.1969 / We come, we eat, we sleep (detail) 1999-2001 / Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / Triptych: left panel: 172.1 x 289.3cm; centre panel: 169.7 x 288.5cm; right panel: 172.2 x 289.2cm / Purchased 2002 with funds from Margaret Hockey OAM through the QAG Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © N S Harsha / View full image
Imagination & Play
Our imagination may be part of our inner world, but we can invite people into that world through storytelling and art. Scale is reversed in Emily Floyd’s Steiner rainbow, an oversized iteration of a child’s stacking toy, which playfully alludes to the universal childhood experience of feeling small relative to the world around us.
The shared energy and joy of coming together is expressed in Nick Cave’s Heard, in which the individual and the group are equally vital for bringing the artist’s vision to life.
Emily Floyd Steiner rainbow 2006

Emily Floyd’s Steiner rainbow 2006, installed in ‘Wonderstruck’, GOMA 2025 accompanied by Syagini Ratna Wulan’s Parhelion 2021 / Photograph: N Umeck © QAGOMA / View full image
Nick Cave Heard 2012

Nick Cave, United States b.1959 / HEARD 2012 / 15 wearable sculptures (six parts each) or as a performance, 15 wearable sculptures (six parts each), choreography, musical score and video / Purchased 2016 to mark the tenth anniversary of GOMA with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Nick Cave / Photographs: James Prinz, courtesy of Nick Cave and Jack Shainman Gallery / View full image
Colour, Pattern & Illusion
Colour has the power to influence how we feel. It can soothe, uplift or energise, and certain combinations of colour pop and zing while others clash. Bridget Riley explores the dynamic relationship between colours and how it influences our sensory experience.
Patterns surround us in our daily lives. There are patterns in thought and behaviour, in movement and music, in the clothes we wear, and in the buildings we construct and inhabit. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian has used pattern to stunning effect, with her mirrored work re-forming the viewer and the surrounding space in fractured, tessellated shapes.
Bridget Riley Big Blue 1981-82

Bridget Riley, England b.1931 / Big Blue 1981-82 / Oil over synthetic polymer paint on linen / 235.3 x 202cm / Purchased 1984 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Bridget Riley / View full image
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian Lightning for Neda 2009

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Iran 1924–2019 / Lightning for Neda 2009 / Mirror mosaic, reverse-glass painting, plaster on wood / Six panels: 300 x 200 x 25cm (each); 300 x 1200 x 25cm (overall) / The artist dedicates this work to the loving memory of her late husband Dr Abolbashar Farmanfarmaian. Purchased 2009. QAG Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Monir Shaharoudy Farmanfarmaian / Photograph N Harth © QAGOMA / View full image
Natural Wonder
We can feel awe in the face of nature’s grand spectacle — its beauty and its destructive forces — but we can also find wonder in our urban spaces: the resolute tree surrounded by tall buildings, stretching towards the sun as it grows. Yuken Teruya’s delicate ‘trees’, which are modelled on specimens from cities around the world, transform easily discarded paper bags into treasures, highlighting the complexity of our relationship with nature.
Works by artists from Ntaria (Hermannsburg) in Central Australia celebrate familial and spiritual connections to Country, illustrating their deep reverence for the lands, waters and skies.
Yuken Teruya Notice - Forest 2006

Yuken Teruya, Japan b.1973 / Notice - Forest (detail) 2006 / Paper and glue / a: 12.5 x 25 x 34cm (without handles); 12.5 x 25 x 60cm (with handles); b: 10.2 x 21.8 x 29.5cm (without handles); 10.2 x 21.8 x 35.5cm (with handles); c: 12 x 23.9 x 35cm (without handles); 12 x 23.9 x 45cm (with handles); d: 12 x 20 x 26.2cm (without handles); 12 x 20 x 37.3cm (with handles); e: 12.3 x 25.3 x 33cm (without handles); 12.3 x 25.3 x 42cm (with handles) / Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government's GOMA Acquisitions Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Yuken Teruya / View full image
Douglas Kwarlpe Abbott Ormiston Gorge 2009

Douglas Kwarlpe Abbott, Arrernte people, Australia 1954–2015 / Ormiston Gorge 2009 / Watercolour on paper / 35 x 54cm / The Glenn Manser Collection. Gift of Glenn Manser through the QAGOMA Foundation 2016. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Douglas Kwarlpe Abbott Estate / View full image
Intangible: Sacred & Sublime
Our encounters with the sacred and sublime, while in many ways universal, can be deeply personal, shaped by our cultural heritage and lived experiences. Ah Xian has perched symbolic objects on top of the heads of his busts in his ‘Metaphysica’ series; some figures point to a Buddhist influence, while others are drawn from historical or traditional tales, or from the artist’s imagination.
Sandra Selig’s ethereal mid-air challenges our perception of space, weight, energy and form with nylon thread, styrofoam.
Ah Xian Metaphysica: Maitreya 2007

Ah Xian, China/Australia b.1960 / Metaphysica: Maitreya 2007 / Bronze and brass / 58.5 x 42.7 x 24cm / Gift of the artist through the QAG Foundation 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Ah Xian / View full image
Sandra Selig mid‑air 2003

Sandra Selig, Australia b.1972 / mid-air 2003 / Nylon thread, Styrofoam / 364 x 955 x 580cm (installed, approx.) / Purchased 2004 with funds from John Potter and Roz MacAllan through the QAG Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Sandra Selig / Photograph: N Umek © QAGOMA / View full image
Flight
Because unaided flight is beyond human capability, the breathtaking sight of someone soaring through the air as in Rosemary Laing's flight research #5 can stir a sense of wonder in us.
Madeleine Kelly’s Spectra of birds urges us to identify each jewel like specimen, an abstraction of an actual bird spotted by the artist in its natural habitat.
Rosemary Laing flight research #5 1999

Rosemary Laing, Australia 1959–2024 / flight research #5 (detail) 1999 / Type C photograph on paper / 121 x 254cm / Purchased 2000. QAG Foundation Grant / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rosemary Laing Estate / View full image
Madeleine Kelly Spectra of birds 2014–15

Madeleine Kelly, Germany/Australia b.1977 / Spectra of birds 2014–15 / Encaustic on cardboard with paper and text / 40 parts ranging from 8 x 11 x 11cm to 27 x 9 x 9cm / Purchased 2015 with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the QAGOMA Foundation / © Madeleine Kelly/Copyright Agency / View full image
What is more wondrous than Kusama's Obliteration room
We can’t believe our interactive installation starts out pristine white. The obliteration room 2002-present is transformed over time as coloured dots multiply in the space, so enter the world of leading contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and add your coloured stickers to a range of white furniture and surfaces and help ‘obliterate’ our domestic space.
Be one of the first to visit 'Wonderstruck' before the room is totally obliterated with colour!
Yayoi Kusama The obliteration room 2002-present

Yayoi Kusama, Japan b.1929 / The obliteration room 2002-present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery (QAG). Commissioned QAG. Gift of the artist through the QAG Foundation 2012 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Yayoi Kusama / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA / View full image

Yayoi Kusama’s The obliteration room 2002-present in 'Wonderstruck' at the Gallery of Modern Art, 2025 / Photograph: J Ruckle © QAGOMA / View full image
Wonderstruck
28 June – 6 October 2025
Gallery of Modern Art
Gallery 1.1 (The Fairfax Gallery), Gallery 1.2 & Gallery 1.3 (Eric and Marion Taylor Gallery)
Brisbane, Australia
Free entry
‘Wonderstruck’ is supported by Major Partners Shayher Group and Carnival Cruise Line alongside Tourism, Media and Supporting Partners.