Wonderstruck

Visitors of all ages will find wonder and awe in the everyday with Wonderstruck, a major free exhibition at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art from 28 June until 6 October.

Presented across six chapters, ‘Wonderstruck’ will include more than 100 works by international and Australian artists including Ah Xian, Nick Cave, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Gordon Hookey, Madeleine Kelly, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Craig Koomeeta, Yayoi Kusama, Rosemary Laing, Ron Mueck, Patricia Piccinini, Brian Robinson, Sandra Selig, Gemma Smith, Yuken Teruya, Judy Watson, Louise Weaver, Jemima Wyman and more.

Audiences will encounter works that transform familiar objects, such as Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih’s Connection 2004, which reconfigures humble cardboard boxes into a monumental arch, and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s display of Neolithic pottery subversively dipped in brightly coloured paint.

Patricia Piccinini and Ron Mueck’s hyperreal sculptures offer a window into the fragility of the human experience, inviting viewers to bring their own perspective to read the expressions of the woman in Mueck’s oversized In bed 2005, or the child perched precariously on a stack of chairs in Piccinini’s The Observer 2010.

The dozens of lives represented in miniature in N.S. Harsha’s massive triptych We come, we eat, we sleep 1999-2001 remind us that life is a process, that no one exists in isolation, and that there is beauty in the perpetual cycles of life.

The influence of colour and pattern on how we perceive the world is explored in the shifting gradient of colours in Syagini Ratna Wulan’s abstract painting Parhelion 2021 and in Yayoi Kusama’s much-loved interactive installation The Obliteration Room 2002–present, which consists of a domestic environment recreated in the gallery space that visitors are invited to transform through the application of colourful dot stickers.

Spectacles of Wonder - Presented in conjunction with GOMA’s ‘Wonderstruck’ exhibition, this free film program celebrates cinema's tradition of creating visually spectacular and narratively immersive worlds that elevate everyday scenarios into sophisticated, surreal, and sublime viewing experiences.

Good to know - On Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 June QAGOMA invites audiences to the Wonderstruck Festival – a free, joy-filled celebration for everyone, featuring hands-on workshops, talks, storytelling and live music.

QAGOMA Is a valued partner of Must Do Brisbane.com

Image credits top to bottom:

1. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian / 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. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA / © Monir Shaharoudy Farmanfarmaian
2. Yayoi Kusama / The obliteration room (installation view) 2002–present / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned by Queensland Art Gallery. Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2012 / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © Yayoi Kusama / Photograph: N Harth © QAGOMA
3. Nick Cave / HEARD (detail) 2012 / 15 wearable sculptures (six parts each), choreography, musical score and video / Purchased 2016 to mark the tenth anniversary of the Gallery of Modern Art with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © Nick Cave / Photograph: James Prinz / Image courtesy: The artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
4. Ron Mueck / In bed (installation view) 2005 / Purchased 2008. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA / © Ron Mueck
5. Madeleine Kelly / Spectra of birds 2014-15 / Purchased 2015 with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: QAGOMA / © Madeleine Kelly/Copyright Agency
6. Syagini Ratna Wulan / Parhelion 2021 / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2022 with funds from Michael Sidney Myer through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / © Syagini Ratna Wulan
7. Production still from Amélie 2001 / Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet / Image courtesy: Icon Film Distribution
8. PIP & POP / Australia 2007–11 / Tanya Schultz / / Nicole Andrijevic / 'Rainbow bridge' from 'we miss you magic land!' 2011 / Gift of the artists through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2013 / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © The artists / Photograph: K Bennett © QAGOMA