The Gallery of Modern Art — GOMA — sits in the South Bank Cultural Precinct and is one of the best reasons to spend a day south of the river. The permanent collection is free to enter and covers international and Australian art from the 1960s onwards, with a strong emphasis on Asia-Pacific artists who are underrepresented in most Western galleries. The building itself is impressive: a vast glass-and-brick structure with a children's art centre, a cinema, and a waterfront restaurant.
The changing exhibitions are the real draw, and they are serious undertakings — GOMA has hosted major retrospectives of artists who rarely make it to Australia, drawing crowds that fill the precinct and spill down to the river. Book tickets for temporary exhibitions in advance. The permanent collection alone is worth an hour, and the location alongside the Queensland Museum, Art Gallery, State Library, and Performing Arts Centre makes this easy to combine with a full cultural day at South Bank.