Sydney Contemporary reveals lineup

The art fair will return to Carriageworks this September.

Words: Erin Irwin

Sydney Contemporary is getting geared up for a fantastic edition, the fair announcing a lineup of 81 galleries from across Australia and abroad, with more set to join in the coming months. The eighth edition will be the first under new Fair Director Zoe Paulsen, signalling a new era for the fair as it heads into its 11th year.

“As Australia’s premier art Fair, we provide a significant boost to the art market annually and take our role of further developing and supporting the sector seriously”, says Paulson. “We’ve brought together industry leaders to curate our dynamic programs for Installation Contemporary, Performance Contemporary and Talk Contemporary, and we’re also bringing back the popular Kid Contemporary for our younger visitors. We can’t wait to welcome collectors and art lovers to enjoy the Fair this September, which truly will be one not to miss.”

This year Talia Linz, Artspace’s Senior Curator, will curate Installation Contemporary, the fair’s section that showcases large-scale artworks. Director of Friends with Strangers Samantha Watson-Wood will curate Performance Contemporary, while Talk Contemporary will be curated by Australian Financial Review Design Editor Stephen Todd and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Sydney Opera House Micheal Do.

Sydney Contemporary’s Founder and Co-Owner Tim Etchells has said that “Sydney Contemporary has been firmly established as the most influential art fair in the region, providing the most concentrated week of art sales annually in Australia. We’ve also just overseen our first Aotearoa Art Fair earlier this month, New Zealand’s premier event for contemporary art, which was a great success with strong sales and attendance. Together the two Fairs are key to the region’s art market, attracting collectors from across New Zealand and Australia which is part of the DNA of Sydney Contemporary.”

Galleries that will be exhibiting for the first time this year include locals CASSANDRA BIRD, with Melbourne’s MAGMA Galleries and Lennox St. Gallery, Mildura’s NAP Contemporary, Praxis Art Space from Adelaide and The Renshaws from Brisbane also heading across. The fair will also host Gajah Gallery for the first time who are from a little further afield, the gallery’s spaces located in Jakarta and Yogyakarta in Indonesia and in Singapore.

Sydney Contemporary will also be presenting PAPER, a dedicated sector giving a platform to works on paper, prints, watercolours, drawings, books, photographs and zines. This area of the fair will host newcomers CBD Gallery and Tiliqua Tiliqua from Sydney, Gallery East from Perth, PARKER Contemporary from Brisbane, and Riverside Studios from Melbourne.

The popular FUTURE sector will also make a comeback, featuring first time exhibitors Minerva from Sydney, and ACAE Gallery and Five Walls Gallery from Melbourne, who will present alongside returning galleries Jennings Kerr from Robertson and LON Gallery from Melbourne.

The full list of galleries (so far) is as follows: in the main sector collectors will find .M Contemporary (Sydney), 1301SW with STARKWHITE (Melbourne; Auckland/Queenstown), A Secondary Eye (Sydney), Alcaston Gallery (Melbourne), Ames Yavuz (Sydney/Singapore), APY Art Centre Collective (Adelaide/Sydney/Melbourne), ARC ONE Gallery (Melbourne), Art Collective WA (Perth), Artereal Gallery (Sydney), Arthouse Gallery (Sydney), Australian Galleries (Sydney/Melbourne), Blackartprojects (Melbourne), CASSANDRA BIRD (Sydney), CHALK HORSE (Sydney), COMA (Sydney), Cooee Art Leven (Sydney), Curatorial+Co. (Sydney), D’Lan Contemporary (Melbourne/New York), Darren Knight Gallery (Sydney), DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY (Sydney), Egg & Dart (Wollongong), Emilia Galatis Projects (Fremantle), Fine Arts Sydney (Sydney), Flinders Lane Gallery (Melbourne), Gajah Gallery (Jakarta/Singapore/Yogyakarta), Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert (Sydney), Gow Langsford (Auckland), Jacob Hoerner Galleries with MAGMA Galleries (Melbourne; Melbourne), James Makin Gallery (Melbourne), Justin Miller Art (Sydney), Lennox St. Gallery (Melbourne), MARS Gallery (Melbourne), Martin Browne Contemporary (Sydney), Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin (Sydney/Berlin), MOORE CONTEMPORARY (Perth), N.Smith Gallery (Sydney), Nanda\Hobbs (Sydney), NAP Contemporary (Mildura), Neon Parc (Melbourne), Niagara Galleries (Melbourne), Olsen Gallery (Sydney), PAULNACHE (Gisborne), PIERMARQ* (Sydney), Praxis Artspace (Adelaide), Redbase Art (Sydney), Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (Sydney), Sabbia Gallery (Sydney), Saint Cloche (Sydney), Stanley Street Gallery (Sydney), STATION (Sydney/Melbourne), Sullivan+Strumpf (Sydney/Melbourne/Singapore), Sutton Gallery (Melbourne), The Commercial (Sydney), The Renshaws (Brisbane), Utopia Art Sydney (Sydney), and Void_Melbourne (Melbourne). In FUTURE collectors will find ACAE Gallery (Melbourne), Five Walls Gallery (Melbourne), Jennings Kerr (Robertson), LON Gallery (Melbourne), and Minerva (Sydney). In PAPER, look out for 16albermarle Project Space and Project Eleven (Sydney), 5 Press (Melbourne), AGAVE PRINT STUDIO (Trentham), Alphabet City Press (Sydney), Baldessin Studio (Melbourne), CBD Gallery (Sydney), Cicada Press (Sydney), Damien Minton Presents (Sydney), Gallery East (Perth), Michelle Perry Fine Arts (Sydney), Melbourne Studios (Melbourne), Mossenson Galleries (Perth), Open Bite Printmakers Inc (Sydney), PARKER Contemporary (Brisbane), Print Council of Australia (Melbourne), Redbase Art (Sydney/Yogyakarta), Riverside Studios (Melbourne), Tiliqua Tiliqua (Sydney), UPSPACE (Sydney), and Vermilion Art (Sydney).

The fair will run from 5 – 8 September this year at Carriageworks. For more information or to book your tickets now, head to Sydney Contemporary’s website here.

This article was posted 18 June 2024.

Image: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery presenting works by Dhambit Munuŋgurr’s work, Sydney Contemporary 2023. Photo: Wes Nel. Courtesy: Sydney Contemporary.

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