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 the cool confines of 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 currently installed in both buildings until 27 April 2025 are innovative, beautiful and thought-provoking works of art from more than 30 countries as part of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.
Watch | Asia Pacific Triennial: Art that makes an impact
Queensland Art Gallery
Mit Jai Inn's Triennial Watermall installation
Before installation could begin on Mit Jai Inn's Triennial installation, the Watermall needed to be drained so that our team could prepare the eights parts of the two-sided suspended canvas tunnel which will lead you through a narrow path built above water. Its immense buoyant ribbon panels that hang like warp looms inhabits a space between ground and ceiling. Watch our installation time-lapse before you visit.
Collection highlight: Pablo Picasso
Surrounded by works from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas, La Belle Hollandaise (The beautiful Dutch girl) 1905 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.
Collection highlight: 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 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 is from one of the traditional dreaming stories, and this work shows four of the reptiles moving towards a waterhole.
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
Brett Graham's Triennial Long Gallery installation
Five dramatic sculptures of Brett Graham Tai Moana Tai Tangata installed in GOMA's central Long Gallery speak to structures created by both the British and Māori during the New Zealand wars (1845–72). Deeply researched to ensure that they directly address Tainui and Taranaki Māoris’ experiences of British occupation, each of these works is superbly crafted, with materials carefully selected to ensure a strong physical and spiritual resonance for Māori.
Collection highlight: Mele Kahalepuna Chun
Mele Kahalepuna Chun is a kumu hulu — a recognised expert practitioner and teacher of Hawaiian featherwork — based on the island of O‘ahu in Hawai‘i. Chun describes her continued engagement with the artform as the fulfilment of her kuleana — her sacred responsibility to serve her community and honour the ho‘oilina (legacy) of her family through the ongoing custodianship and advancement of this artform. Watch Chun describe the featherwork on display.
Collection highlight: Nomin Bold
Cup of Life 2023 is an imposing curtain of grinning skulls that combines painter Nomin Bold’s use of Buddhist symbolism with sculptor Ochirbold Ayurzana’s practice as a metalworker. Of commanding scale and panoramic format, the work consists of almost 2000 cast-metal skulls suspended on taut wires, fixed floor to ceiling. Watch our installation time-lapse
Free children activities
Children are our future appreciation group, we welcome families with children of all ages to the Children’s Art...
If you’re a local or visiting Brisbane, whether you have a spare 30 minutes to drop in for a dose of art at either of our neighbouring buildings — the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art — or a leisurely 3 hours to wander both sites, here are some suggestions to make the most of your visit.
Pick and choose your preferences from the range of contemporary and historical Australian, Asian, Pacific and international art on display.There’s something for everyone, whether you’re aged 3 or 103.
Queensland Art Gallery
The Queensland Art Gallery building opened in 1982 as part of the first stage of the Queensland Cultural Centre at South Bank; until then, the Gallery never had a purpose-built permanent home. Designed around the Brisbane River, the spectacular Watermall’s cavernous interior runs parallel to the waterway threading its way through the ‘River City’.
Collection highlight: 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). Considered a quintessential image of Brisbane, the clouds of purple blooms capture the attention of Gallery visitors and has ensured the painting’s enduring appeal. Hanging alongside is Monday morning 1912 by Vida Lahey (illustrated), another of the Gallery’s most loved works. The painting of two young women doing the family wash, once a common sight in Australian households, now a recording of a by-gone era.
Interesting facts: Under the jacaranda depicts the first jacaranda tree grown in Australia, planted in Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens in 1864; while the laundry room depicted in Monday morning was located in the artist’s home, at the time piped water and built-in concrete troughs were considered modern conveniences!
Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13)
R Godfrey Rivers Under the jacaranda 1903
Vida Lahey Monday morning 1912
Collection highlight: Contemporary Australian art
The jewellery-like intimacy of Fiona Hall’s Australian set (from ‘Paradisus Terrestris Entitled’ series) 1998–99 (illustrated) is a juxtaposition between culture and nature; human body parts combine with native botanical species.
Interesting fact: The artist has transformed humble disposal sardine-tins by engraving, chasing and burnishing in the tradition of the colonial silversmith.
Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13)
Fiona Hall Australian set 1998–99
Collection highlight: 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. Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa was a well-known artist and respected Elder of Anmatyerre/Arrernte heritage. Goanna Story c.1973-74 is from one of the traditional dreaming stories, and this work shows four of the reptiles moving towards a waterhole.
Interesting fact: The artwork has a strong sense of symmetry; one half is a mirror image of the other.
Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13)
Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa Goanna Story c.1973–74
Collection highlight: International art
Surrounded by works from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (illustrated) and Edgar Degas (illustrated), La Belle Hollandaise (The beautiful Dutch girl) 1905 (illustrated) is a key painting that marks a transition from the subdued hues and emaciated figures of Pablo Picasso’s ‘blue period’ to the serenity and warmth of the ‘rose period’. Picasso must have been pleased with the result — he inscribed the work at the top left as a gift to Paco Durio, his dear friend and neighbour in the Parisian suburb of Montmartre.
Interesting fact: Pablo Picasso's La belle Hollandaise was 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.
Location: International Art Collection, Philip Bacon Galleries (7-9)
Pablo Picasso La Belle Hollandaise 1905
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Tete de fille (Head of a girl) 1892
Edgar Degas Three dancers at a dance class c.1888-90
Exhibition highlight: The Asia Pacific Triennial
For more than three decades, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art has showcased an evolving mix of the most exciting and important developments in contemporary art from across Australia, Asia and the Pacific. During the 11th chapter, wander through Thai artist Mit Jai Inn’s suspended canvas tunnel in the Watermall (illustrated), its immense hanging ribbon panels inhabit a space between ground and ceiling; then onto Papua New Guinea’s display by collective Haus Yuriyal (illustrated).
Interesting fact: The inaugural Asia Pacific Triennial in 1993 was the first project of its kind in the world to focus on the contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific. ‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ which features the work of 70 artists, collectives and projects from 30 countries is at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art until 27 April 2025.
Location: Queensland Art Gallery
Mit Jai Inn Tunnel #APT 2024
Haus Yuriyal 2024
Roy and Matilda
For those visiting with children of all ages, drop by the home of Roy and Matilda, two mice who one day decided to visit the Queensland Art Gallery, loved it so much, they decided to say. Just look for the letters 'R' and 'M' carved into their beautiful wooden front door.
Interesting fact: One day, a man who worked in the Galley’s workshop restoring and carving frames found they were living here and decided to make them a special little front door.
Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13)
Watermall & Sculpture Courtyard
The Queensland Art Gallery’s grand Watermall — a visitor favourite for both regular art lovers and tourists — extends far beyond the Gallery’s interior; past the Dandelion fountains (illustrated) through to the reflection pond and Sculpture Courtyard. Why not relax and enjoy a quiet moment of contemplation at the adjoining QAG Cafe.
Interesting facts:...
