Vivid Sydney Immersive Art, Light & Urban Design

From ancient artifacts to cutting-edge contemporary art, the city’s cultural institutions provide enriching experiences for visitors of all ages and interests. Whether you’re a local or a tourist, these current exhibitions in Sydney museums offer opportunities to learn, reflect, and be inspired. IKONO Roma is an immersive, interactive journey that celebrates fun, creativity, and participatory art.
To make sure everyone gets to explore and play, Wonderverse is interactive attractions sydney limited to 30 people at a time, with morning, afternoon and night sessions running throughout Vivid Sydney. Featuring works by artists such as Hayley Egan, Jeremy Worrall, and Akiyoshi Kitaoka, this museum of illusions brings together sculptors, illusionists, and perception artists from across the globe. Explore the Holographic Moon Room, a 3D projection that takes you straight to a shimmering lunar landscape. Step into the Levitation Station, where an upside-down train illusion plays tricks on your sense of gravity. Peek behind the curtain in the Movie Magic Room and discover how cinematic soundscapes and visual tricks come to life. With installations that blend light, sound, scent, and touch, no two moments feel the same.

DigiPark’s opening is part  of a new wave of immersive entertainment drawing huge crowds globally, according to Jacques Wong, Head of Sales and Marketing of DigiPark. The exhibition runs from 16 May to 19 July at the forecourt of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, housed in a custom-built truss structure that captures the breathtaking proportions of the Sistine Chapel. Scoops Ahoy serving up banana splits and Surfer Boy Pizza offering slices? The latter pair are found at Mix-Tape, an 80s-themed mall experience — as is the Palace Arcade, where MADMAX's high score begs to be bested, plus the themed cocktail-slinging Upside Bar. Ensuring everyone sticks together and has an enjoyable experience can be challenging when visiting with a group, especially with younger children. The Sydney Coach Company is your go-to partner for group travel, providing comfortable and reliable bus hire transportation to and from the aquarium.
This year’s selection highlights diverse perspectives on contemporary issues, with works spanning various media including painting, sculpture, video, and installation. This major exhibition presents the work of internationally acclaimed artist Julie Mehretu, known for her large-scale, abstract paintings that explore themes of migration, globalization, and identity. The exhibition features works spanning the artist’s career, offering visitors a comprehensive look at her evolving practice. Located at Circular Quay with stunning harbor views, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) offers innovative exhibitions that showcase the best in contemporary artistic expression from Australia and around the world. Joan Ross’s vibrant eight-minute digital artwork offers a colorful critique of Australia’s colonization. This thought-provoking piece challenges viewers to reconsider historical narratives while engaging with contemporary artistic perspectives on Sydney’s complex past.
Here, children and adults can make drawings inspired by Henri Rousseau, which are then displayed in an immersive projection. Later that year, Culturespaces expanded its offerings with a second venue in South Korea. The Bunker de Lumières is located in a former bunker on the Pacific island of Jeju. The venue also includes a versatile programming and events space, and an outdoor cafe named Blue Rider.

Between marquee art fairs, auction-house madness, downtown openings, uptown previews, long-awaited gallery and museum exhibitions, and the artsy... The Cambridge English Dictionary describes immersion as “the fact of being completely involved in something.” The immersive art trends use new media to create a total body and mind experience and pull the audience into their own universe. An immersive art installation that you’ll find down in the Tank (previously an oil bunker during wartime), The Rites of When reflects on seasonal environmental cycles during a time of destruction and disruption. Using video and sound, it poignantly responds to the challenge of the climate emergency and our increasing disconnect from nature. A magical haven of sweets, colors and candy, Museum of Ice Cream is an immersive experience that brings out the child in guests of all ages.
Check out our list of the best creative classes, to help you upskill, or head to the best markets in Sydney to pick up some supplies. No, the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition is ticketed, with one ticket covering all three prizes at the Art Gallery of NSW. Adult tickets start from $30, with 2-for-1 pricing available on Wednesday nights between 5pm and 10pm. Young Archie, the accompanying display of work by artists aged 5 to 18 on the ground floor, is free to view and doesn’t require a ticket to the main exhibition. Sydney’s standout current exhibitions include the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of NSW, which run until mid-August and cover portraiture, landscape and figurative sculpture in one ticket. Banksy Limitless has opened in The Rocks with over 250 works including certified originals and a hologram installation making its global debut.
He was part of the first digital generation, and learned programming on a Hyundai PC. Following an extensive career in computer graphics, design, and programming, he launched his own design company around 2014. Nieves de la Fuente Gutiérrez is a multidisciplinary artist who was born in  Spain and currently lives in Cologne.

Solander Dining and Bar will be the first and only Sydney venue to host international dining sensation 7 Paintings – The Art of Dining. The immersive dinner show combines art, technology, and food and will be available at the restaurant within West Hotel Sydney from July 31. With locations all over the world, 7 Paintings is a two hour dining experience where guests are guided through a menu where each course is dedicated to an artist such as Picasso, Michelangelo, and Banksy. Colours, shapes, and flavours blend into a journey through seven masterpieces that are staged live at the table. From here, diners are encouraged to discover their creative side as they may be asked to paint or solve riddles. Each of the four experiences are set inside inconspicuous shipping containers that have been refurbished to visually set the scene for each story.
"It’s as if it was created for us and we can’t wait to transform it into an alternate dimension." The 80,000-square-foot space will be an expansive and interconnected world, following on from the original universe in Bristol. "We’re now open, but the experience will never be finished," said Graham MacVoy, Wake The Tiger’s managing director and co-founder.

However, the rise of such exhibitions has sparked a lively debate in the art world. Some critics argue that these digital showcases prioritize entertainment and 'Instagrammable' moments over genuine artistic engagement, reducing priceless works to a 'visual simulation' that detaches them from their physical context and creator's intent. They raise concerns about a culture that consumes art as a fleeting sensory pleasure rather than through deep observation and contemplation. In January 2025, Oren Ambarchi's Black will open, followed by Angelica Mesiti's Prepared Piano for Movers (Haussman).
After having their face mapped by a webcam, visitors can then see themselves projected in real-time onto a 5-foot tall sculpture of a head. Part visual splendor, part olfactory wonder and part ooey-gooey sensory fun, Sloomoo Institute’s slime museum offers a captivating playground for all ages. The exhibition spans seven themed stages inside HERO, the new immersive space from MATTE Projects, and reimagines art as a fully physical, synesthetic experience. It contains interactive art, installation rooms, and portals to other worlds from artists such as Brian Eno, Amon Tobin, Shrine, Beach House and Android Jones. "Our team of designers and craftsmen have pushed the boundaries of environmental storytelling to create an interactive experience unlike anything else in the Midwest," said Tucker Trotter, CEO of Dimensional Innovations.