Famous artist's 'brain-tingling' works inspire, provoke

Visitors can expect to have their senses tantalised and viewpoints challenged at an exhibition from a world-renowned artist that has been uniquely tailored for Australian audiences.

Icelandic-Danish installation artist Olafur Eliasson's expansive exhibition Presence premieres at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane on Saturday.

Curator Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow said Eliasson's powerful and thoughtful work would take visitors on a "brain-tingling" journey and prompt many to reflect on their places in the world.

"The exhibition is very much a way to playfully test the way we perceive the world and make sense of it," she told AAP.

The works have taken over the whole ground floor at GOMA and include a series of large-scale installations, some more than four metres tall, inspired by the natural world.

"The show has incredible works. You really feel this sense of wonder," Ms Barlow said.

The exhibition takes its name from one of Eliasson's new works, Presence, which gives the impression patrons are viewing an enormous hovering sphere while bathing in sunlight.

Another work, River Bed, is an installation of smooth rock with a stream that visitors can touch, watch and listen to.

"There's this kind of tinkling of water and it's kind of familiar ... but then it feels also quite startling," Ms Barlow said.

Another of the works, the cubic structural evolution project, is a table made from 300kg of white Lego blocks that visitors sit at to reflect on the future shape of the city in which it is placed.

"The exhibition helps people feel excited about our creative potential and connects art and science," Ms Barlow said.

Also on show is Beauty, a rainbow suspended in a veil of fine mist, and a suite of works developed for Presence.

Eliasson, described as one of the world's most influential living artists, works in installations, painting, sculpture, photography and film, and is driven by his interests in perception, movement and feelings of self and community.

Presence runs from December until mid-July.