Cerith Wyn Evans, installation view, Cerith Wyn Evans. Borrowed Light Through Metz, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2024–25, image courtesy the artist, photograph: Lewis Ronald
[December 5, 2024, Sydney, Australia] The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) today announced its 2025 exhibition program.
In 2025, MCA Australia will present an exciting program celebrating Australian contemporary art in all its forms as well as international firsts, new commissions, and a new large outdoor public sculpture on Tallawoladah Lawn.
The Museum will stage two major exclusive international exhibitions over winter and summer alongside a dynamic program of exhibitions, commission and artist led projects. In spring, MCA Australia will unveil the inaugural Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission by British artist Thomas J Price – a major moment for the Museum and Warrane/Sydney Harbour.
MCA Australia Director, Suzanne Cotter said, ‘Next year the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia will partner with leading artists from across Australia and the world to present today’s most exciting contemporary art and ideas here in Sydney.
In 2025 we will provide a platform for Australian artists while also exhibiting acclaimed international artists Cerith Wyn Evans and Thomas J Price alongside groundbreaking contemporary artists from around the world working with emerging technologies for our Summer show.
The program speaks to our contemporary world in all its richness and complexity. These exhibitions ask profound questions ranging from the significance of First Nations art and cultures in a museum context, to the impact of artificial intelligence at a time when the boundaries between culture and technology are being radically redefined.
In 2025 MCA Australia will bring large public sculpture back to the Sydney Harbour foreshore, a highlight for millions of visitors and Sydney locals to enjoy.’
More than 50 Australian artists will present work for the 2025 program. Opening in March The Intelligence of Painting features 14 Australian women artists and celebrates the dynamism and energy of contemporary painting. In March the Museum also launches the first major institutional exhibition by Kamilaroi, Meanjin/Brisbane based artist Warraba Weatherall,a powerful presentation exploring the histories of Kamilaroi cultural objects in a museum context.
In spring MCA Australia presents a solo exhibition by Australian Darug Country/Sydney based artist Yasmin Smith who will introduce new works in dialogue with her large-scale ceramic installation Seine River Basin (2019), acquired for the MCA Collection in 2020, and originally commissioned for Cosmopolis #2: rethinking the human, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
During the year, the Museum launches two new commissions by Australian artists, the Circular Quay Foyer Wall Commissionby Diena Georgetti in the Autumn and LotiSmorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission by Ricky Swallow in Winter. The Museum will also present new displays as part of the popularMCA Collection: Artists in Focus including a communal presentation by Tiwi artists. Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists will showcase Australian artists under 35 years. MCA Australia’s influential C3 West program working with artists and communities in Greater Sydney includes two new projects.
For its international winter exhibition, MCA Australia will present renowned Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans. For this Sydney-exclusive exhibition, the Museum will work in close collaboration with the UK-based artist to secure a significant selection of major works never seen before in Australia.
For the Sydney International Art Series 2025–2026 major summer exhibition, MCA Australia presents Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI. The first of its kind in a major Australian institution, Data Dreams will feature new commissions and major projects by leading contemporary artists that examine how artists are engaging with artificial intelligence to imagine new ways of being and explore the implications that these technologies hold for our collective future. The participating artists will be announced in 2025.
Both the summer and winter exhibitions are proudly supported by the NSW Government via its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW.
Minister for the Arts, Music and the Night-time Economy, and Minister for Jobs and Tourism John Graham said: ‘From the big Thomas J Price sculpture on the shore of Circular Quay, to the series of international and Australian artists inside, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is set to have another spectacular year of engaging locals and visitors with the best contemporary art on the planet.
‘Part of what the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia does so well, is championing new and exciting works that attract new generations of art lovers. With shows like Data Dreams, that grapples with the impact of AI, and the first solo show from Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall, that mission continues.’
The 2025 program commences in March with a major focus on Australian contemporary art.
The Intelligence of Painting, 7 March – 20 July 2025, in Level 1 Macgregor Gallery launches the 2025 program to take the temperature of contemporary painting in Australia through the work of 14 women painters. The presentation, curated by Suzanne Cotter and Associate Curator Manya Sellers, showcases: Karen Black, Angela Brennan, Eleanor Louise Butt, Prudence Flint, Maria Madeira, Thea Anamara Perkins, Kerrie Poliness, Jude Rae, Jessica Rankin, Julie Nangala Robertson, Gemma Smith, JelenaTelecki, Jenny Watson and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu.
The first solo museum exhibition of Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall (b. 1987), runs from 21 March – 7 September 2025, one of Australia’s most engaging contemporary artists of his generation. Exploring the histories of Kamilaroi cultural objects, Weatherall illustrates how the objects, materials and documentation held within museums ‘hold power’ and as such have great influence. The exhibition curated by Megan Robson in the Level 1 South Gallery premieres several new artworks, including a major new co-commission between MCA Australia and the Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025, and encompasses large-scale installation, sculpture and video works.
The Museum’s annual large-scale temporary site-specific Circular Quay Foyer Wall Commission will also be unveiled in March. The artist selected for next year’s prestigious commission is Australian Naarm/Melbourne based artist Diena Georgetti (b. 1966, Mparntwe/Alice Springs). Best known for her abstract modernist paintings, the 2025 commission marks a new direction in Georgetti’s practice by incorporating artificial intelligence to inform the content and composition of her commissioned work.
MCA Australia’s Sydney International Art Series 2024-2025 exhibition of acclaimed American artist Julie Mehretu (b. 1970, Addis Ababa) continues until 27 April 2025 in the Level 3 Galleries. Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory is the first exhibition of the artist’s work to be shown in Australia and the Asia-Pacific and presents over 80 paintings and works on paper dating from 1995, including new works created especially for the exhibition.
Cerith Wyn Evans, installation view, Cerith Wyn Evans. Borrowed Light Through Metz, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2024–25, image courtesy the artist, photograph: Lewis Ronald.
Winter 2025
The winter program commences in May 2025 with the unveiling of MCA Australia’s Vivid Sydney projection artist and later in the month, the 2025 Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission by LA based Australian artist Ricky Swallow alongside its international Winter exhibition.
In June, MCA Australia will present a major survey of Welsh conceptual artist, sculptor and filmmaker Cerith Wyn Evans (b. 1958, Llanelli) for its winter ticketed exhibition, 6 June – 19 October 2025, in the Level 3 Galleries. Exuberant and experimental, Wyn Evans stages dynamic contemporary environments of light and sound. This Sydney-exclusive exhibition is curated by Lara Strongman, MCA Director, Curatorial & Digital working in close collaboration with the UK-based artist.
A new work by Ricky Swallow (b. 1974, Millowl Country / San Remo, Victoria) for the 2025 Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission on Level 4 will be unveiled in August. Swallow’s work will be the eighth commission to respond to the Museum’s significant site on the edge of Warrane/Sydney Harbour. Swallow’s works often combine familiar forms with art historical references in their investigations of ideas and states of objecthood, labour, time and obsolescence.
In spring 2025, MCA Australia will unveil a large-scale outdoor public art commission by British artist Thomas J Price on Tallawoladah Lawn, in front of the Museum, overlooking Warrane/Sydney Harbour. This is the first in a three-year series of sculptural commissions for the Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission and is supported by The Balnaves Foundation.
Spring also sees the return of the annual exhibitionPrimavera 2025: Young Australian Artists.Presented in the Level 2 Galleries dedicated to the work of early-career Australian artists under the age of 35. This year’s edition is curated by Tim Riley Walsh, Assistant Curator.
In October 2025, the Museum will present a solo exhibition of significant recent large-scale ceramic sculptural installations by Australian Sydney based artist Yasmin Smith (b.1984, Darug Country/Sydney). Curated by Jane Devery, Senior Curator, Exhibitions, and Manya Sellers, Associate Curator, the exhibition in Level 1 South Gallery presents Smith’s major wall-based ceramic installation Seine River Basin (2019), commissioned for Cosmopolis #2: rethinking the human, Centre Pompidou, Paris and acquired for the MCA Collection in 2020, in conversation with recent and new works.
For its major summer exhibition, MCA Australia presents Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI, 21 November 2025 – 26 April 2026, curated by Senior Curator, Exhibitions Jane Devery, Curator Anna Davis and Assistant Curator Tim Riley Walsh. The first of its kind in a major Australian institution, Data Dreams will feature works by leading contemporary artists from around the world that examine our evolving relationship with artificial intelligence.
Christopher Kulendran Thomas, installation view, The Finesse, 2022, in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann, Christopher Kulendran Thomas: FOR REAL, Kunsthalle Zürich, 2023, image courtesy the artist, photograph: Andrea Rossetti
Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI will present ambitious projects across a series of experiential gallery spaces. The exhibition will bring into focus a range of concerns including relationships between technology and power; how algorithms and datasets are influencing our worldviews and calling our perception of reality into question; and the immense environmental costs of the data economy. Other themes include the co-evolution of humans and machines; new perspectives on intelligence and agency; and what it means for technologies to simulate human cognition, to form memories, hallucinate and dream.
This exhibition is presented as part of the Sydney International Art Series, an initiative of the NSW Government via its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW.
In 2025, MCA Australia presents seven new displays for the popular MCA Collection: Artists in Focus including works by: Gordon Bennett,Rosalie Gascoigne, Timo Hogan, Rosemary Laing, Patricia Piccinini as well as a collaboration by Jessica Rankin and Julie Mehretu. Works by late artist of the Dhuḏi-Djapu clan from Dhuruputjpi, in eastern Arnhem Land, Mulkun Wirrpanda will go on display along with a communal presentation by Tiwi artists including Timothy Cook, Raelene Kerinuaia, Nina Puruntatameri, Cornelia Tipuamantumirri, Bede Tungulatum and Pedro Wonaeamirri.
Beyond the Museum walls: Greater Sydney
MCA Australia’s long-standing C3West program will continue its artist-led and ground-breaking social impact program with two projects in 2025. A partnership with ACON, NSW’s leading health service provider and advocate for LGBTQ+ people, will see culturally and linguistically diverse LGBTQ+ community members engaged across Greater Sydney in an artist-led project culminating in May. In November a partnership with Bayside Council will premier new works in the public realm that will have been developed with local young people aged 16 to 22 in a sustained initiative to promote creative industries career pathways.
MCA on Tour
In 2025 MCA Australia will continue its national touring exhibitions Primavera: Young Australian Artists and Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise highlighting the work of Australian artists.
In partnership with Museums & Galleries of NSW (M&G NSW), MCA Australia will continue its three-year regional tour of Primavera: Young Australian Artists, showcasing artists aged 35 years and under. The exhibition is guest curated by Talia Smith, and includes artists: Tiyan Baker (NSW), Christopher Bassi (QLD), Moorina Bonini (VIC), Nikki Lam (VIC), Sarah Poulgrain (QLD) and Truc Truong (SA) and will tour four regional galleries in 2025 with support from the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW | 14 February – 23 March 2025
Bank Art Museum Moree, NSW | 4 April – 31 May 2025
Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, NSW | 21 June – 10 August 2025
Wangaratta Art Gallery, VIC | 23 August – 19 October 2025 Latrobe Regional Gallery, VIC | 31 October 2025 – 15 Feb 2026
The national tour of Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise continues across Australia exhibiting at three galleries in 2024. The exhibition presents the Colombian Australian artist’s, ongoing photographic series featuring the tiny Australian Maratus spider. It includes new works from this series and Cardoso’s acclaimed video work On the Origins of Art I-II (2016).
Tweed Regional Gallery, NSW | 10 May – 3 August 2025 Geraldton Art Gallery, WA | 23 August – 2 November 2025 Bunjil Place, VIC | 27 November 2025 – 22 February 2026
Public Program
MCA Australia’s public program of events, talks and tours will continue to connect contemporary art and ideas and extend them beyond the gallery experience. The Museum will partner across the year with key cultural institutions including the Sydney Festival, NAIDOC, Vivid Sydney and the Power Institute. MCA Artbar also returns in 2025.
A series of Sydney Festival: MCA Up Late events will take place on Wednesday nights 8, 15, and 22 January 2025. The program offers an evening of contemporary art, music, performance and film screening throughout the Museum.
About Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia)
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) presents, collects and engages with the art of our time. Guided by the principles of belonging, connection and influence, we aim to be the defining platform for contemporary art and ideas in Australia and beyond. Located on Sydney Harbour at Tallawoladah, a home to stories, art and culture for over 65,000 years, we connect the widest possible public to contemporary art through exhibitions, events, creative learning and access programs. Our evolving Collection of over 4,700 artworks is the only public collection in Australia dedicated to the work of living artists, with over a third represented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. As an independent, not-for-profit organisation, MCA Australia raises over 80% of its revenue each year through donations and commercial activities to deliver its artistic and engagement programs.
About the artist
New York-based artist Julie Mehretu (b. 1970, Addis Ababa) has exhibited extensively at major institutions across the US, UK and Europe since the 1990s, including mid-career survey exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2021) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019). Mehretu has undertaken major commissions for Goldman Sachs, New York and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and most recently, for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Mehretu has participated in numerous international and biennial exhibitions that have won her international recognition.
