QAGOMA exporting Asia Pacific Triennial exhibition to London’s V & A Museum

In a reversal of roles Brisbane will export art to London with a showing of a Queensland gallery’s flagship exhibition set to show at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

QAGOMA director Chris Saines. File picture: Liam Kidston

Brisbane’s Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art is now world famous and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum will show highlights from it in early 2026.

The APT, as its known. is the flagship exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art and director Chris Saines is in London to announce the major cultural partnership.

Mr Saines said QAGOMA had never taken anything to the northern hemisphere and that he was thrilled to be working with V & A director Dr Tristram Hunt and the museum’s internationally renowned exhibitions team to bring QAGOMA’s unique collection of contemporary Australian, Asian and Pacific art to the world.

They are going to love Torres Strait Islander artist Ken Thaiday Sr’s Shark mask (with bait fish) in London

“For three decades the APT has been the cornerstone of our gallery program, bringing together the work of more than 650 artists and groups from across 50 countries in the Asia Pacific region,” Mr Saines said.

“This London project will be only the second time that works acquired through the exhibition have toured internationally, following a tour to Santiago, Chile in 2019. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share the cutting edge and customary art practices of our vast and immensely diverse region, which are so richly represented in our collection, with audiences in the northern hemisphere. There will be First Nations work from Queensland and that will help put us on the map.”

Art from QAGOMA’s collection of APT highlights will be shown at The Victoria & Albert Museum, London in 2026

The exhibition is being co-curated by QAGOMA’s team of Asian and Pacific art curators led by Tarun Nagesh and Daniel Slater, Director of Exhibitions at the V & A. Since its inception in 1993, the APT has attracted more than four million visitors and extended QAGOMA’s reputation nationally and internationally.

“Importantly, the APT has enabled us to build an extraordinary, unrivalled collection of contemporary Asian and Pacific art that represents the unique creative voices of world-renowned contemporary artists alongside collaborations with local communities and arts makers,” Mr Saines said.

Chinese Australian artist Ah Xian’s famous porcelain heads will be show in London as part of the APT highlights exhibition

Dr Hunt said the museum was delighted to share the ambition of hosting the APT at the V & A.

“APT presents a truly global, cross-cultural offering of contemporary practice across disciplines and regions, and we look forward to sharing this with our international audiences in London,” Dr Hunt said.

The exhibition will feature works by artists from the mega cities of Asia to those based in Australia and the distant atolls of the Pacific. It will include works ranging from large-scale sculptural installations to miniature painting to works on bark cloth and intricate body adornment.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity, spanning 5000 years of human creativity.

It was established in 1852 to make works of art available to all and to inspire British designers and manufacturers and its current purpose is to champion creative industry, inspire the next generation and spark imaginations.