Brisbane Puts the World on Notice: QAGOMA Takes Its Asia Pacific Vision to the V&A
There’s something quietly extraordinary happening in London right now, and Brisbane put it there.
Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific opened this month at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington — one of the most visited and influential museums in the world — and its entire foundation rests on what QAGOMA has been building in Brisbane since 1993.
The exhibition draws on more than three decades of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA’s flagship series and still the only major recurring exhibition dedicated to the region’s contemporary makers. More than 70 works by over 40 artists from 25 countries are now on show in London — many of which have never been exhibited outside the Asia Pacific before.
QAGOMA Director Chris Saines CNZM called the opening “a watershed moment for the Gallery.”
“The exhibition celebrates key figures and movements that have shaped cultural contexts in the Asia Pacific. Visitors to the V&A will be struck by the astonishing diversity in artistic and material practice that has distinguished the Triennial for over three decades.”
V&A Director Sir Tristram Hunt was equally emphatic:
“The works in Rising Voices will resonate with visitors to the V&A while reflecting the depth, dynamism and cross-cultural engagement of the art produced across this vast region.”
The exhibition is structured across three themes — Re-Visioning History, which brings together artists responding to colonial legacies and conflict; Enduring Knowledge, which celebrates material practices rooted in ancestral memory; and Evolving Faith, which explores how spirituality finds expression in contemporary art. Spanning sculpture, photography, painting, ceramics, weaving and body adornment, it is a show of genuine scope and ambition.
For Brisbane, the connection is personal. The Asia Pacific Triennial has drawn more than four million visitors to QAGOMA since its inception, quietly building one of the world’s most significant collections of contemporary Asian and Pacific art — right here in South Bank. Rising Voices is that legacy landing on one of the biggest stages on earth.
Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific runs at the V&A, London, until 10 January 2027. Tickets at vam.ac.uk.
