Adelaide is bursting at the seams with extraordinary exhibitions this year, including world-glass makers in the Fuse Glass Prize, the current Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, and a rare opportunity to see the groundbreaking work of 1980s Papunya artists. 

Later this year, there’ll be an exclusive showcase of European and American art from the 19th and 20th centuries at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) winter exhibition, showing works by Cézanne, Monet, Matisse, Picasso and more. 

And save the date for summer’s landmark solo exhibition of Kaurna artist James Tylor, plus a fashion and photography coupling that’s all about South Australian dresses. 

Here are the best exhibitions coming to Adelaide, in chronological order. 

Game On

At Jam Factory’s Barossa gallery, there’s a playful exhibition of woven and clay football figurines, a road plate hand-painted with a depiction of an oval in action, and a lively sketch of West Coast Eagles and Richmond Tigers players. Game On, which opened to coincide with the AFL Gather Round celebrates the culture of Australian Rules Football. Works have come from First Nations arts centres and collectives, including Tjanpi Desert Weavers, Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Arts and Ernabella Arts. Each piece shows a deep connection to the sport, and a unifying love of the game across the nation.

Game On is on now until June 21 at Jam Factory Seppeltsfield, Barossa. 

Wangka Walytja – the Life and Times of the Papunya Literature Production Centre

Between 1979 and 1990, hundreds of cultural stories were beautifully illustrated and recorded in both Pintupi-Luritja and English at the Papunya Literature Production Centre in the Northern Territory. The centre was a hub for oral storytelling and traditional dance, and it was the origin of the famous Western Desert art movement. This exhibition has original drawings, newsletters, photos, audio recordings and storybooks from the centre, which have been in storage for 30 years. Wangka Walytja, which means “our language, our culture” in Pintupi-Luritja, is a rare opportunity to view in person those groundbreaking bilingual works from Papunya. 

Wangka Walytja runs until June 8 at the South Australian Museum.

2026 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize

Coral, cockatoos, icebergs and monsoons. The natural world has been a muse for many artists, past and present, including the 74 featured artists in this year’s Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize. There are paintings of low tides, jewellery made to look like moths, and a giant sculpture of a black cat. It’s a varied exhibition representing the intersection of art and science. This one is ticketed, at $15 per adult, and runs until mid-July. 

2026 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize runs until July 19 at the South Australian Museum.

Fuse Glass Prize

Come celebrate the best in glass at this philanthropically funded art prize. Eighteen finalists have been selected to show off their delicate and meticulous glass works, including Dominic Burrell’s precariously stacked geological-looking blobs with mesmerising eye-like centres, and Jordan Benson’s huge, framed stained glass work of a taped-off car crash. All artists are Aussies or Kiwis, and winners of both the main prize and the Emerging Artist Prize (with a total prize value of $30,000) will be announced on June 25. 

Fuse Glass Prize runs from April 24 to July 5 at the Jam Factory.

Avital Sheffer | Convivencia: The Archaeology of Identity

New South Wales-based ceramic artist Avital Sheffer creates bulbous vases and vessels with intricate patterns that reflect her Middle Eastern and Jewish ancestry. Reminiscent of archaeologically preserved artefacts, each ceramic sculpture in this exhibition is linked by themes of identity and exchange between cultures which have coexisted harmoniously. Sheffer named the exhibition Convivencia, Spanish for “living together”, inspired by a time when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in what is now modern day Spain and Portugal. 

Convivencia: The Archaeology of Identity runs from April 24 to July 5 at the Jam Factory.

2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Yield Strength

We know the idiom “pressure creates diamonds”, but does pressure really transform something for the better? Curator Ellie Buttrose has called this year’s Biennial Yield Strength, which asks 24 artists to explore how materials and people change under pressure. The line-up includes Venice Biennale winner Archie Moore, Melbourne-based painter Prudence Flint, Ngapa Jukurrpa painter Julie Nangala Robertson, and sculptor and video artist Charlie Sofo.

Yield Strength runs from February 27 to June 8 at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Samstag Museum of Art and Adelaide Botanic Garden. 

Beginnings

Imagine if, when you shopped for groceries, you could see the whole cost of buying, say, a punnet of blueberries. Not just the dollar amount, but the labour of growing and picking them, the environmental costs of transporting them, preserving them and keeping them cool until they reach your basket. Adelaide University’s Mod gallery has created a convenience store where you can do just that. Beginnings also features a machine called the Beast, which you can “fuel” with various energy systems. Go feed it. 

Beginnings runs until November 20 at Mod. 

Anarchive: Gut-feeling

Curators Sasha Grbich and Danni Zuvela want to challenge you not to simply look at the artworks in this exhibition, but to feel your way through them. Anarchive: Gut-feeling brings together 11 newly commissioned pieces – including installation, performance and participatory events – as well as historic artworks in a show about experimentation as a process. The exhibition focuses on underrepresented artists and practices, particularly female artists. And all that’s asked of you, the viewer, is to be as open as possible to those experimental works on show. 

Anarchive: Gut-feeling runs from May 8 to June 27 at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental.

Two Islands, One Thread: Textiles of Lombok & Bali

Woven, embroidered and tie-dyed textiles – including previously unseen items from AGSA’s collection and loans from Lombok’s West Nusa Tenggara State Museum – will be on display in an exhibition that explores the artistic exchanges between two Indonesian communities. Artworks by the Sasak people of Lombok and people of Bali show how each respected their ancestors and their spiritualities.  

Two Islands, One Thread: Textiles of Lombok & Bali runs from May 15 to October 11 at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition

See world-famous impressionist, cubist, surrealist and abstract expressionist works by master artists, including Cézanne, Monet, Matisse, Picasso and Renoir, in AGSA’s major winter exhibition. The Adelaide exclusive features 57 masterpieces from the 19th and 20th centuries, all on loan from Ohio’s Toledo Museum of Art. There’ll be select works from AGSA’s collection too, showing how artists transformed modern art during this radical era. 

Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition runs from July 11 to November 8 at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

James Tylor: Turrangka...in the shadows

Mildura-born artist James Tylor uses his art to explore his Kaurna, Māori and European heritage. Over the years, his practice has spanned photography, video and sculpture, often drawing on the language of the Kaurna people. Turrangka...in the shadows will be the most comprehensive display of his art, including his hand-tinted daguerreotypes (images created on mirrored or copper plates), as well as re-created Kaurna artefacts and digital photography. 

James Tylor: Turrangka...in the shadows runs from July 31 to November 1 at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Michelle Nikou: Tell it slant

South Australian sculptor Michelle Nikou, the Guildhouse Fellowship recipient of 2024, will transform domestic objects into humorous and poignant sculptures for one of AGSA’s summer shows. Working with materials such as bronze, resin, latex and ceramics, Nikou invites the viewer to see items from their everyday lives in a new and unexpected way. 

Michelle Nikou: Tell it slant runs from December 5 to March 21, 2027, at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Dressed Up: Fashion & Photography 1850–1920

A match made in heaven: historical fashion and period photography are paired up and taken for a spin in this summer exhibition about South Australian dresses. Using recent research into the makers and wearers of garments from AGSA’s collection, Dressed Up will provide an insight into how the various clothes on display represent social class, emerging trends and the broader societal values of the time.

Dressed Up: Fashion & Photography 1850–1920 runs from December 5 to March 21, 2027, at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Past Events

Golshad Asami: Rhythms of Home

Ceramic artist Golshad Asami has made a series of beautiful plates decorated with deep blue, red and gold paint to explore the artist’s connection to Iran, where she was born. Asami moved to Adelaide in 2019, and her delicate circular ceramics tell the story of living between two worlds: one of her plates, called Dual Heritage, has a thin gold line dividing geometric patterns in half. Another, called The Poetic, has coloured wool tassels representing the comfort of family life. Each one is deeply connected to her life. 

Golshad Asami: Rhythms of Home runs until April 12 at the Jam Factory.

Make Award: Biennial Prize for Innovation in Australian Craft and Design

Wollongong-based artist Cinnamon Lee won this year’s Make Award for her metal sculpture that she describes as a lamp, a piece of jewellery and a theatrical work of art. It’s currently on display at the Jam Factory, alongside a sofa made of 3744 golf balls. The sofa was made by furniture-maker Jake Rollins, who took home second prize. Plus, you’ll see various quirky design items from all the other finalists. 

Make Award: Biennial Prize for Innovation in Australian Craft and Design runs until April 12 at the Jam Factory. 

Touching the Divine: Love and Devotion

In this exhibition, AGSA curators have pulled out paintings and ceramics from the gallery’s collection that explore how artists interpreted Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic stories across Asia over the centuries. There are Hindu goddesses, Sufi subjects and many depictions of Krishna spread around the Lower Melrose Wing, each one expressing the concept of love and devotion.

Touching the Divine: Love and Devotion runs until April 26 at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Kumarangk

As part of a project looking at the Ngarrindjeri women who resisted the construction of the Hindmarsh Island bridge, Kumarangk brings together work by Ngarrindjeri artists, including Aunty Ellen Trevorrow and Aunty Betty Sumner, to honour their fight and survival of culture. The exhibition includes a remounting of Ngarrindjeri and Buandig artist Sandra Saunders’s Hindmarsh Island Collection; Saunders was one of the leaders of the Kumarangk protests in the 1990s.

Kumarangk runs from February 21 to April 4 at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental.

Editor's note: This article was published on January 20, 2026. It was significantly updated on April 30, 2026 to include a number of new art exhibitions in Adelaide this year.