See & do · Galleries
Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
Opening hours
- Monday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Tuesday: Closed
- Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Thursday: 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Friday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Saturday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Sunday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Images provided by Google Places
Cutting-edge Australian & international contemporary art in a grand, waterside art deco building.via Google
An Art Deco building on the harbor's edge dedicated entirely to exhibiting and collecting contemporary art.
- Good to know
- Free general admission; the rooftop cafe offers excellent harbor views.
Reviews from Google
The museum used to be free and had interesting exhibitions. Now it’s $25 to view two mostly empty galleries that took less than a hour to view. I don’t mind paying to see art, but the exhibitions were underwhelming for the price.
View @ Museum Of Contemporary Art Australia. . Dedicated to the 'art of now', this tall art-deco style museum opened in 1991, on the traditional land of the Aboriginal Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. . The quirky exhibits here invoke thought, leveraging multimedia, colours, stories, and soundscapes to jog the imagination. . Exhibits are regularly refreshed so there's always something new. During our visit, the highlights included the 'Data Dreams: Art And AI' series of AI art, 'Yasmin Smith: Elemental Life' of zen-like ceramic sculptures, 'Loop. A Model Of How The World Operates' light installation with painting by Brook Andrew, and the 'Tjanpi Desert Weavers' sculpture series.
It’s a modern art gallery which needs tickets to enter — this is normal in any other place, but quite unique here. Also, unlike the name suggests, the exhibit is actually quite ‘substantial’ (e.g. the impact of AI on art), not eccentric at all compared to other contemporary art galleries in other countries. A good place to visit!
It’s been 20 years since I had been to the MCA, and I won’t be back in the next 20. A $25 admission fee (adult, no concession). In a five story building they have only 3 levels of exhibition. Each of these are rally half floors because of all the lecture theatres, cafes, media rooms etc. And one of the floors was shut - preparing for a new exhibition. Do that it the admission fee because there is one third less exhibition space. Nup. In fact, they have recently put the price of admission up. This represents such poor value for money. And the exhibitions - seriously! Ceramic replicas of drift wood, videos of paint being poured? You must be having a lend. And the pièce de résistance was a video of a plastic shopping bag expanding from being a crumpled ball. Although, it was tightly fought battle for the premier display - with a wall being painted in a hand made paint by an artist. Seriously? I cannot believe tax payer dollars goes into such dross.
Visited for the Cerith Wyn Evans exhibition. Great location near Circular Quays station with spectacular views of the Sydney harbour and Opera house from the open rooftop. There is a cafe and bar on the rooftop. Loved the exhibition displays. The museum has 4 floors with displays spread across. There is a museum shop on the ground floor.