Variety is the name of the game in Adelaide’s art scene in 2025. From metal-cast designs and photographs of contemporary dance legends to historic paintings and locally crafted jewellery, Adelaide’s world-class galleries promise locals something new and unexpected in 2025.
Here – in chronological order – are the best art exhibitions to see in Adelaide this year.
Renowned American glass artist Dale Chihuly’s shimmering sculptural works are coming to the Botanic Gardens. Emerging from garden beds and peeping out of waterways around the garden are 15 hand-blown glass installations, which visitors can explore for free as they walk a two-kilometre trail. Included in the exhibit are two new artworks created specifically for the site: Glacier Ice and Lapis Chandelier and Jet and Crimson Fiori. Inside the Bicentennial Conservatory, there’s an adjacent ticketed exhibition, In Full Colour: Dale Chihuly, which showcases works alongside insights into his life and the intricacies of touring such fragile pieces. It’s in this exhibition you’ll find Jet and Crimson Fiori which is inspired by the South Australian floral emblem, the Sturt dessert pea. Another ticketed event, Chihuly Nights, takes you through the gardens after dark to see the works transform under dramatic lighting.
Chihuly in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens runs until April 29, 2025 at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.
Touching the Divine explores how love and devotion are represented in sacred Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic artworks from Asia. The collection homes in on prevalent symbols of heaven and earth featured across religious and geographical contexts, all of which suggest the divine quality of love – a phenomenon which transcends time, space and even realms.
Touching the Divine: Love and Devotion is on now and runs until July 2025 at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Melting Point features five modern artists who create elegant designs from raw resources by combining ancient metal casting practices with the latest aesthetic principles. These artists push the boundaries of traditional materials and techniques to explore new creative frontiers.
Melting Point will run from April 22 to July 6, 2025, at the Jam Factory.
Gray Street Workshop has supported Australian jewellery- and object-makers to develop their skills since 1985. Compiled by the studio’s partners, Beautiful Tensions celebrates the workshop’s 40th anniversary with an exhibition of its members’ creations. Each object is meaningful in its own right but is also imbued with meaning through their common threads. Starting in Adelaide, the exhibition will tour 12 Australian venues.
Beautiful Tensions will run from April 22 to July 6, 2025, at the Jam Factory.
Dangerously Modern is the first major exhibition to focus on the role female Australian artists played in the evolution of modernism in Europe. It features more than 200 artworks by 50 Australian women pioneers who emigrated to Europe in the early 20th century to chase their creative ambitions. Dynamic and visceral, their works contributed to one of the most significant artistic movements of late.
Dangerously Modern will run from May 24 to September 7, 2025, at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
The biennial Ramsay Art Prize is back for its fifth iteration. The $100,000 prize is awarded to an Australian artist under 40. Previous winners have included Vincent Namatjira and Ida Sophia. Pieces of any size and scope are considered and judged by a panel of visual arts professionals, and finalists are included in an exhibit at AGSA. A further $15,000 People’s Choice Prize is awarded based on public votes.
The Ramsay Art Prize will run from May 31 to August 31, 2025, at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
The National Portrait Gallery presents 52 photographs of iconic dancers across decades from its collection, including portraits of Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova and Australian choreographers Gideon Obarzanek and Graeme Murphy. The exhibition encapsulates the joys of movement in still, timeless form to celebrate the human body’s immense capacity for authentic expression.
Dancer: A National Portrait Gallery Touring Exhibition will run from June 7 to August 16, 2025, at the David Roche Gallery.
For the second time, the Royal South Australian Society of Arts is offering a prize pool worth $10,000 to non-representational artists. The abstract works featured are chosen to challenge viewers’ traditional conceptions of art and provoke unique emotional experiences. Prizes will be awarded at the exhibition’s opening on June 8.
The RSASA Biennial Abstract Prize will run from June 8 to July 20, 2025, at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts.
Contemporary artist Mark Valenzuela has received $20,000 from the annual Porter Street Commission to exhibit his work at the ACE. Drawing on his memories of growing up on army base camps in the Philippines, Valenzuela explores conflict, power, resistance and anxiety on both political and personal levels through ceramics, installations, painting and other mediums.
The Porter Street Commission: Mark Valenzuela will run from August 2 to September 20, 2025, at the Adelaide Contemporary Experimental.
Islands are Mountains will feature modern First Nations art through an exhibition and a series of performances. The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on collective memory and the value of lived experiences to inform perspectives.
Islands are Mountains will run from October 17 to December 12, 2025, at the Adelaide Contemporary Experimental.
