Against the ever-tumultuous backdrop of global political events, rather than engage directly in such political themes, many of Australia’s state museums are instead focusing on subjects from the ancient biological world this year – with displays on Australia’s lost mega-fauna, its giant crocodiles as well as its insect kingdom.
The major exception to this plant and animal kingdom trend is Melbourne Museum, whose highly anticipated exhibition ROME: Empire, Power, People is already sparking commentary and comparisons to present-day political power structures.
As usual, there is a huge variety on offer from our major museums this year, so keep this shortlist handy and bookmark these big shows.
Museum blockbusters in 2026 – quick links
Australian Capital Territory
Hallyu! The Korean Wave – until 10 May at National Museum of Australia, Canberra
Hallyu! The Korean Wave is the first exhibition of its kind in Australia to showcase one of the most influential global cultural movements of recent times – K-Pop.
From PSY’s Gangnam style video that went viral in 2012, to global boy and girl band sensations like BTN and ATEEZ, K-Pop continues to shape international popular culture and draw millions of fans worldwide.
What is it about modern Korean pop songs, dance moves, film and TV dramas, new tech and street fashion that keeps us on the hook?
Developed by the renowned Victoria and Albert Museum in London, this interactive and multi-sensory exhibition, which features more than 250 objects, answers these questions through its display of Korean cinema, drama, music, fandom, tech, beauty and fashion items.
It also maps South Korea’s journey from colonial annexation in the early 20th century to the global economic and cultural powerhouse the country is today. Don’t miss this one!
2026 Napier Waller Art Prize – opens September at Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Established in 2018, the Napier Waller Art Prize is named after Mervyn Napier Waller, an Australian artist who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915. The prize is open to all current and former service personnel in the Australian Defence Force, and raises awareness of the experiences and talent of service personnel.
The exhibition of 2026 finalists’ work is sure to offer a diverse array of moving representations of Australian Defence Force personnel’s military service experiences.
Terracotta Warriors – opens December at National Museum of Australia, Canberra
National Museum of Australia will also welcome an exciting Terracotta Warriors exhibition – on loan from the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre – in December 2026.
Further details on this blockbuster show will be released later this year.
New South Wales
Sydney: Surviving Australia – now on permanent display at Australian Museum, Sydney
Sydney: Surviving Australia is a newly opened, free permanent exhibition that explores Australia’s wild side. Discover Australia’s most fascinating creatures, including giant wombats that moved across ancient landscapes and fanged kangaroos that stalked prey. Learn exactly how large a bull shark can grow as it patrols the oceans, then uncover how frogs sustain suburbia.
This exhibition boasts more than 350 specimens, including new fossils, as well as life-sized displays and interactive elements.
Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard – opens May at Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney
Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard presents one of the most intriguing hoards ever discovered. The treasure had lain buried for over 1,000 years when it was discovered in 2014 by a metal detectorist in Galloway in southwest Scotland. This exhibition showcases the results of five years of in-depth research, presenting a series of amazing discoveries which have attracted world-wide attention.
The exhibition was created by National Museum Scotland and travelled to Melbourne Museum (where it is showing until 26 Jan 2026), before landing at the Australian National Maritime Museum in May.
Task Eternal – opens late 2026 at Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Task Eternal is one of five exhibitions scheduled to mark the reopening of the Powerhouse Museum at its new location in Parramatta in late 2026.
Developed over four years and including over 600 objects, the exhibition will be an immersive journey tracing humanity’s enduring quest to defy gravity, take flight and journey into space – from First Nations sky knowledges and early aviation to cutting-edge aerospace innovation, ethics and speculative futures.
It will be presented in the museum’s largest exhibition space, PS1, with an 18-metre height and more than 2,200 square metres of exhibition space, and will feature a major work by renowned American artist James Turrell, the immersive Shangri La (Over the Hump) which is part of his Ganzfeld series of 1991.
The installation immerses viewers in shifting fields of light and colour, disrupting depth perception and creating a powerful sensory experience – similar to flying through dense fog – to connect audiences to Turrell’s background as a pilot.
Victoria
ROME: Empire, Power, People – 1 April to 25 October at Melbourne Museum
Featuring over 150 objects on display for the first time ever in Melbourne and drawing on the extraordinary collections of Museo Nazionale Romano and Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, this Melbourne-exclusive exhibition features original statues, mosaics, frescoes, jewellery and everyday objects from the humblest to the most sumptuous and is a vibrant exploration of Rome’s political, cultural and social life.
This ticketed show is undoubtedly one of standout highlights on the 2026 cultural calendar. Start planning your trip!
Transmutation: Our Origin Stories, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre – until 28 February at Melbourne Museum
Also showing in the first two months of 2026 at Melbourne Museum is Transmutation: Our Origin Stories, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, a fascinating journey into stories of origin, transformation and cultural inheritance where Papua New Guinean cultural traditions, matriarchal lineage and contemporary art converge.
Curated by Papua New Guinea born multidisciplinary artist Weniki, the exhibition explores alchemy through movement, textiles and painting, from intergenerational storytelling to the transformative nature of the female body as a vessel for ancestral knowledge.
Game Worlds – until 29 March at ACMI, Melbourne
Spanning over 50 years of play, Game Worlds features more than 30 videogames from the 1970s to today, with 44 playable moments, original builds, rare design materials and hands-on prototypes you won’t find anywhere else.
Late-night access, talks, accessible exhibition visits and industry events are programmed throughout the run.
Queensland
CROC! Lost Giants to Living Legends – until 5 October at Queensland Museum, Brisbane
Walk alongside one of the planet’s most powerful and fascinating animals, on a journey stretching back over 130 million years, in the ticketed, interactive all-ages exhibition CROC! Lost Giants to Living Legends.
From ancient ‘supercrocs’ that once roamed with dinosaurs, to the unique crocodile species living across the world today, Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends explores the science, culture and enduring connections between people and these remarkable creatures.
Crocodiles survived the dinosaurs, evolved and made their mark on culture, fascinating humans from early First Nations’ stories to Hollywood blockbusters of today. Where does the legend and the myth meet reality?
Make a Scene: Fashioning Queer Identity – until 19 July at Queensland Museum, Brisbane
Coinciding with the 35th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, Make a Scene: Fashioning Queer Identity and Club Culture in the 90s is an original exhibition by Queensland Museum that brings together fashion, pop culture and LGBTQIA+ lived experience.
Featuring extraordinary pieces from the museum’s costume and fashion collections, this free exhibition reveals untold stories of Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ communities and illuminates key moments from this period of Brisbane’s history.
Insect Agency – until 2 March at Queensland Museum Cobb+Co, Toowoomba
Insects are everywhere, in a mind-blowing diversity of shapes, colours and species. Insect Agency, an exhibition developed by Queensland Museum, explores the surprising variety of ways insects do good – for the planet and humanity.
Discover more than 1000 insect specimens, from the tiniest wasps to brightly coloured butterflies, dracula ants, dung beetles and stick insects. Experience nearly all 349 species of Queensland butterflies, which make up more than 75% of Australia’s 450 or so butterfly species.
South Australia
Wangka Walytja – 15 January to 8 June at the South Australian Museum, Adelaide
Wangka Walytja – the life and times of the Papunya Literature Production Centre is a vibrant exhibition celebrating the ground-breaking work of the Papunya Literature Production Centre, where from 1979 to 1990 a dynamic group of Papunya writers, artists, literacy workers, and elders created a vast body of beautifully illustrated books in Pintupi-Luritja for the school’s bilingual program.
The exhibition displays a range of original materials, including drawings, storybooks, community newsletters, handwritten manuscripts, photographs and audio recordings from the archive.
Papunya is a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, about 240 km northwest of Alice Springs, on the edge of the Western Desert. Papunya sits on Anangu Country and has played a major role in Australia’s cultural, artistic and literary history despite its small size and remoteness.
Western Australia
Biomass – 3 February to 14 June 2026 at WA Museum Boola Bardip, Perth
Biomass is a VR-focused exhibition that transforms WA Museum Boola Bardip’s Jubilee Hall into a living, breathing gallery of interactive installations and extended reality artworks. Experience the dynamic relationship between organic life, energy flow and environmental change through immersive storytelling and sensory design.
The show includes ticketed VR film experiences, with the The Man Who Couldn’t Leave and Passenger running from 3 to 9 February, and Gondwana from 12 to 17 February.
Northern Territory
Tracy’s Echo: 50 Years of Resilience – on now at MAGNT, Darwin (closing date TBC)
Tracy’s Echo: 50 Years of Resilience, which opened in late 2025, honours the untold stories of Aboriginal survivors of Cyclone Tracy.
Tracy’s Echo shares deeply personal memories of survival from local artists and storytellers. These works were first shared through a series of powerful community displays led by Joanne and Tanyah Nasir and are presented at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory alongside a newly commissioned sound work.
William Mackinnon: Phoenix – 21 February to TBC May at MAGNT, Darwin
The world premiere exhibition reflects Mackinnon’s experiences living and working alongside Aboriginal artists and communities in the Western Desert and Kimberley regions.
As a field officer with Papunya Tula Artists during the mid-2000s, Mackinnon lived in the desert among artists and their families, witnessing both the extraordinary beauty of Country and the complex realities of remote community life. His paintings grapple with these contradictions and portray relationships in landscapes where human, cultural and natural forces are deeply entwined.
Telstra NATSIAAs – opens 27 June at MAGNT, Darwin
Australia’s longest-running and most prestigious art award of its kind, the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards are presented on Larrakia Country (Darwin) by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and principal partner Telstra.
Read: Gaypalani Waṉambi wins the Telstra Art Award at the 2025 Telstra NATSIAA
Celebrating excellence, cultural strength and innovation through art, the NATSIAAs provide a nationally significant platform for sharing powerful stories and unique practices from across the continent, showcasing the very best of contemporary First Nations art.
Tasmania
Hobart Current – until 26 April at Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Last but certainly not least, Hobart Current is a major biennial of contemporary art that is definitely worth a look before it closes in April.
Extending beyond the walls of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and into the streets and spaces of Hobart, it showcases some of freshest work being made by Australian artists across multiple mediums.
In an exciting first, this edition the biennial is being led by Tasmanian creative directors and features works by 10 Tasmanian-based artists, highlighting the state’s vibrant and innovative contemporary arts scene.
The theme of this year’s Hobart Current (its third iteration) is ‘here’. Co-Creative Directors Denise Robinson and Travis Tiddy say the theme represents a moment of convergence which is ‘grounded in time, care and dialogue…exploring how we live, exchange and imagine in an era of fragmentation’.
