The first comprehensive museum exhibition of the artist’s work in the Asia-Pacific region, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) presents Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible.
Attesting to Wyn Evans’ enduring engagement with the possibilities of sculpture, the exhibition includes a significant selection of major light and sound works never before seen in Australia, in addition to site-specific works engaging with the natural environment of Warrane (Sydney Harbour).
Cerith Wyn Evans is one of today’s most significant contemporary artists. His sculptures and installations explore the relationships between language and space, time and perception, thought and meaning. Distilling ideas into forms, his art is underpinned by his deep interests in music, literature, philosophy and art history. What emerges are experimental and exuberant environments of light and sound.
Conceived as if visitors were strolling through a garden – long a source of inspiration for the artist – Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible invites visitors to contemplate their own passage through space and time.
For MCA Australia, the artist has created several site-specific works engaging with the light, soundscapes and natural environment of Warrane (Sydney Harbour). The exhibition presents Still Life (In course of arrangement…) (2025), featuring native plants, and the major neon light installation Sydney Drift (2025).
The distinctive sounds of the precinct resonate through MCA Australia’s galleries in the work Two Gravity Gongs (2025), while the artist’s acclaimed neon works are illuminated by the natural light of Circular Quay, subtly shifting as light patterns evolve throughout the day and over the course of the exhibition.
The exhibition includes a significant selection of major works produced over the past 15 years. Highlights include the award-winning sculpture Composition for 37 Flutes (2018), in which 37 glass pipes ‘inhale’ and breathe sound into the gallery, and the monumental work F=O=U=N=T=A=I=N (2020), an architectural wall of white neon, three metres high and ten metres wide, which audiences are welcome to walk around and through.
The exhibition also presents key works from Wyn Evans’ celebrated series Neon Forms (after Noh) (2015 – ongoing), large-scale ‘drawings in space’ using neon light. These gestural forms are complemented by works from the series StarStarStar/Steer (2019), …take Apprentice in the Sun (2020), and phase shifts (after David Tudor) (2023), creating a garden of light and sound in the MCA’s galleries.
“MCA Australia has a long history of creating memorable encounters with the art of our time and introducing to the public in Australia the work of some of the world’s most important living artists,” said Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Director, Suzanne Cotter.
“Cerith Wyn Evans is part of that rich and continuing history. His exhibition created for the MCA and its unique context on the shores of Warrane/Sydney Harbour is a polyphonic immersion into a world of light, sound and pure poetry which will amaze and enchant visitors and remain in their minds and bodies for many years to come.”
Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible is curated by MCA Australia’s Director of Curatorial & Digital, Lara Strongman and Assistant Curator, Antares Wells. The exhibition is supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW.
Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 140 George Street, The Rocks (Sydney)
Exhibition continues to 19 October 2025
Entry fees apply
For more information, visit: www.mca.com.au for details.
Images: Installation view, Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2025, image courtesy and © Cerith Wyn Evans, photo by Hamish McIntosh | Cerith Wyn Evans, F=O=U=N=T=A=I=N, 2020, and Composition for 37 flutes, 2018. Installation view, Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2025, image courtesy and © Cerith Wyn Evans, photo by Hamish McIntosh