Olafur Eliasson: Presence

Olafur Eliasson: Presence is an expansive exhibition by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson featuring major new installations, photography, and sculpture, showing at Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) from  December 6 to July 12, 2026.

Exclusive-to-Brisbane, the exhibition, featuring more than 20 artworks by the artist from 1993 to the present, was developed in close collaboration with the artist and his multidisciplinary Berlin-based studio and will span the entire ground floor of GOMA.

From the seminal 1993 work Beauty, which suspends a rainbow in a veil of fine mist, to the immersive rocky landscape and small stream of Riverbed 2014, 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, which first featured in QAGOMA’s major ‘Water’ exhibition in 2019, will be a highlight of the exhibition.

The importance of light to life is a recurring motif in Olafur’s practice and 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 of 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.

Also making its debut in the exhibition is the title work, Presence 2025, an immersive, large-scale installation that envelops the viewer as it floods the gallery space with a yellow, monochromatic light evocative of the sun’s photosphere. 

A family favourite, interactive installation The cubic structural evolution project 2004, encourages audiences to collaboratively build and re-build a ‘city of the future’ from thousands of pieces of white Lego. 

QAGOMA is a valued partner of Must Do Brisbane.com

Image captions - top to bottom:

1. Olafur Eliasson, Denmark b.1967 / Pluriverse assembly 2021 / Installation view: The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, 2024 / © 2021 Olafur Eliasson / Courtesy: The artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles / Photograph: Zak Kelley 

2.Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Beauty 1993 / Spotlight, water, nozzles, wood, hose, pump / Installed dimensions variable / Purchased 2025. The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Charitable Trust / Collection: The Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Charitable Trust, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © 1993 Olafur Eliasson 

3. 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

4. Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / The large Iceland series #8 2012 / C-print / 96 x 143.5 x 6cm/ Courtesy: The artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles / © 2012 Olafur Eliasson

5. Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Presence (detail) 2025 / Stainless steel, aluminium, monofrequency lights, printed textile wedges, aluminium perforated sheets, mirror foil, glass mirror, wood / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: The artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles / © 2025 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Studio Olafur Eliasson

6.Olafur Eliasson, Denmark b.1967 / The cubic structural evolution project 2004 installed at the Gallery of Modern Art / ABS plastic / Purchased 2005. QAG Foundation Grant / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © 2004 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: J Ruckli © QAGOMA  

7. Olafur Eliasson / Denmark b.1967 / Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives 2025 / Polarisation filters, steel, wood, LEDs, motors, electrical ballast, Polyhedron: PVC, resin, motor, control unit / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: The artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles / © 2025 Olafur Eliasson / Photograph: Studio Olafur Eliasson