For four days each September, Carriageworks becomes a showcase of the most exciting and sought-after pieces and people in Australian contemporary art. Galleries from across the country and beyond arrive with new works by emerging talent and established names. This year marks Sydney Contemporary\u2019s 10th anniversary, with more than 100 exhibitors and over 500 artists from Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the United Kingdom taking part.<\/p>\n
The sheer breadth of the fair is part of its appeal \u2013 and its challenge. Major works by celebrated artists including Michael Zavros, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Jenny Watson and Tony Albert sit alongside international names, while the Futures sector shines a light on artists and galleries at pivotal moments in their careers.<\/p>\n
With more than 1000 artworks to navigate, it helps to have a few names in mind before you arrive. We asked 13 gallerists to share the artists they\u2019re most excited about at this year\u2019s fair \u2013 from established figures worth revisiting to younger artists they think are on the cusp of something bigger. We also asked each of them about what they most recently bought at the fair.<\/p>\n
Joanna Strumpf, Sullivan & Strumpf<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
We are exhibiting 26 of our wonderful artists, so that\u2019s a really tricky question. If I had to mention just one, I would say Alex Seton\u2019s Soloist Variation 2012-26 will be one of the highlights of our booth. A seated, hooded figure carved in Rosso Lepanto, a gloriously rich, heavily veined, deep red marble. It\u2019s a reprise of his iconic work, Soloist, made for Art Basel Hong Kong more than a decade ago. Part of a more recent series of works in different coloured marbles, Soloist Variation will sit at the centre of our booth, as if watching all of the action of the fair in a state of passive resistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t wait to see Darren Sylvester\u2019s new work Hot Cakes at Neon Parc. Who doesn\u2019t love hot cakes?<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?<\/p>\n
Last year Ursala [Sullivan] and I each bought one of Tony Albert\u2019s fabulous Ash on me (lament) series ceramics. From another gallery, a few years ago, I got one of Mechelle Bounpraseuth\u2019s ceramic B\u00e1nh m\u00ec works which sits on a shelf behind my desk at work and makes us all very hungry!<\/p>\n
Tom Jamieson, Martin Browne Contemporary<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
I would highlight Ebony Russell, who\u2019s created new works inspired by her work acquired by London\u2019s Victoria and Albert Museum. Drawing on Josiah Wedgwood\u2019s iconic blue and white jasperware, Ebony reimagines that history through a distinctly contemporary, playful and feminist lens. With the incredible international attention surrounding her practice, Sydney Contemporary is a rare opportunity to see these new works in Australia.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always difficult to choose just one but I\u2019m excited to see Nicola Hicks at the Messums booth. I have admired her expressive, almost visceral sculptures for some time.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?<\/p>\n
For me, Sydney Contemporary has always been about discovery. Some of the artists I\u2019ve first encountered at the fair have stayed with me and ultimately led to acquisitions later, which speaks to the lasting impact of seeing so many incredible artists in one place.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Lan Davidson, D Lan Galleries<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
Paddy Bedford. He was a great East Kimberley lawman and one of Australia\u2019s most important artists, with extraordinary, distilled compositions that carry the geology, history and kinship of Gija Country.<\/p>\n
D Lan Galleries has represented his Estate since 2023, continuing the stewardship of our late friend William Mora. This year is particularly significant: alongside works on paper at Sydney Contemporary, we\u2019ll present a solo exhibition at our Sydney gallery later this year, marking the final release of works from the Estate. It also comes 20 years after Bedford\u2019s landmark solo exhibition at the MCA, so it feels like an important moment to look again at the scale and significance of his work.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
Gunybi Ganambarr at Annandale Galleries. Ganambarr is one of the most consequential Yolngu artists working today. His etched metal works and paintings on bark continually push the possibilities of material and form while remaining deeply grounded in Yolngu knowledge and visual law.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?
Two small works by Tony Albert from Sullivan & Strumpf at last year\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n
Amanda Rowell, The Commercial<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
Stephen Ralph\u2019s two busts hand-carved from old recycled hardwood. Stephen is a Sydney-based figurative sculptor and his work is incredibly time-consuming to make. In recent years he\u2019s been carving marble, basalt and hardwood. His works are rare and there\u2019s great warmth to them.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
Jenny Watson at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. Jenny is one of Australia\u2019s greats. She\u2019s an old punk and has been represented by Roslyn since the early 1980s. Jenny and Roslyn are a legendary artist-gallerist relationship. I\u2019m looking forward to being next door to them at this year\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?
Fifty square metres of booth.<\/p>\n
Andy Dinan, Mars Gallery<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
Kohl Tyler is going great guns. Her ceramic work is breathtaking and she\u2019s an artist that collectors should be paying attention to right now. She recently showed in Copenhagen and before that with Mars at the Aotearoa Art Fair. She\u2019ll also be on show in December at the NGV\u2019s Triennial with five majestic ceramic works that were acquired from the Rigg Design Prize.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
I\u2019m excited to see unseen works by Sally Gabori at Alcaston Gallery. I would\u2019ve loved to meet Gabori. I reckon we would\u2019ve got on well and told some great stories to each other over a vino or two. She began to paint at the age of 80 and is an artist whose use of colour and brushstrokes to tell her own stories is so fresh. Sadly, she only had a short career but the work she left behind is an astonishing cultural legacy and I would love to own her work one day.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?
I buy a work at every fair Mars shows at. My last purchase was from Lon Gallery. I bought a series of very tiny Stephen Benwell white figurines standing under a tree in my holiday house.<\/p>\n
Sotiris Sotiriou, Coma Gallery<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
I\u2019m thrilled to be showing new work by New Zealand artist Grace Wright this year. She\u2019s a fantastic painter and thinker, drawing on everything from 17th-century religious painting and the baroque to the natural world. Her paintings are incredibly luminous. She\u2019s also opening a museum project at Tauranga Art Gallery later this year, made up of a suite of very large-scale works, so it feels like a particularly exciting moment for her.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
I think Jenny Watson and Mia Boe at Roslyn Oxley9 will make for a very nice presentation. Cross-generational, new work, historic work.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?<\/p>\n
I get high off my own supply.<\/p>\n
Jasper Knight, Chalk Horse<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
Allery Sandy. We\u2019ve been working with her and Yinjaa Barni Art for 17 years. We\u2019re so lucky to receive her aerial-view paintings, which she\u2019s been working on for the majority of this year. She\u2019ll be travelling from Roebourne, Western Australia for this year\u2019s edition of the fair. Her works are a must-see and her talk is a must-attend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?Kohl Tyler, a ceramic artist at Mars Gallery. I was lucky enough to visit her studio last year in Melbourne, and we\u2019re honoured to show one of her works earlier this year. I\u2019m sure her Sydney Contemporary presentation will be well worth a visit.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?<\/p>\n
A painting by Adrian Jangala Robertson. As soon as I saw his works, I knew they were something to keep an eye on. I was thrilled to spend time with him at Darwin Art Fair this year, and I can\u2019t wait for everyone to see his new works, specifically his bronze sculptures.<\/p>\n
Tim Olsen, Olsen Gallery<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
We are so excited to share work from all five of our SCAF artists this year, including Babette Robertson, Aaron Crothers, Evie Adasal, Stephen Bird and Joseph McGlennon. McGlennon\u2019s work is intriguing for me as it blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction. His new work presents rare and exotic birds within carefully staged environments inspired by Victorian natural history and the spirit of Charles Darwin’s voyages.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
I\u2019m keen to see Syrup Contemporary debut in the Futures and Paper sectors, particularly new paintings by Eleni Ioakimidis.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?
Having been at Sydney Contemporary since its first edition, I\u2019ve lost count of the brilliant works I have seen and acquired.<\/p>\n
Cassandra Bird, Cassandra Bird Gallery<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
I\u2019m particularly excited to present a major new body of work by Grace Lillian Lee, a Meriam Mer artist whose practice is bringing Torres Strait Islander weaving traditions into a contemporary sculptural language. Lee has developed an extraordinary practice at the intersection of art, fashion, performance and cultural knowledge.<\/p>\n
At Sydney Contemporary, we will present 12 new sculptures in the booth alongside the monumental Suggoo Pennise, a 3.5-metre kinetic sculpture created collaboratively by Lee, her father Allan George Lee and Dr Ken Thaiday Snr.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
I\u2019m really looking forward to seeing Dr Ken Thaiday Snr\u2019s presentation with The Secondary Eye. His work will create a wonderful dialogue with Grace Lillian Lee\u2019s presentation and the collaborative installation, giving Torres Strait Islander art a particularly strong and exciting presence across the fair.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?
A great glass of champagne.<\/p>\n
Toby Meagher, Michael Reid Galleries<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
Playing favourites among equals is a difficult game. But I will highlight Leila Jeffreys, a well-established and prominent photographer with an international reputation, who has joined the gallery only weeks out from the fair.<\/p>\n
Jeffreys is best known for images of birds, photographed at human scale, with a startling attention to colour, line, form and composition. But to call her a bird photographer is to miss the point. Her work is the result of years-long research and fieldwork, made in collaboration with conservationists, ornithologists and sanctuaries, and it has lately evolved beyond portraiture into large-scale conceptual work alongside video and installation.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
Nasha Gallery in Sydney is an interesting, newish gallery. Over many art fairs I\u2019ve been drawn back to the work of Mark Maurangi Carrol. He paints figurative abstraction \u2013 a figure is there, but dissolved by an innovative painterly technique. He\u2019s a good colourist, and his paintings keep me intrigued.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?
My last fair purchase was actually at the Aotearoa Art Fair, back in April. I purchased a punchy little Richard Lewer painting titled What Do Art Dealers Really Do? And in a nutshell, my job is to back an artist before the world agrees with you.<\/p>\n
Jack Willet, 1301SW<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
As we often do, for 2026 we have opted for a group presentation at the fair, exhibiting many exciting artists and artworks, so this question is hard to answer. We\u2019re presenting the likes of Rose Nolan and David Egan for the first time at Sydney Contemporary, then some familiar faces in Jonny Niesche and Jelena Telecki. Something I\u2019m always excited for is when we have the opportunity to debut a new large-scale painting by Melbourne-based painter Tim Bu\u010dkovi\u0107. This work, Untitled (along the vine wall, east), feels at once historic and outside of time, depicting figures engaged in a ritual or Socratic trial. People cannot help but be absorbed by the work, seeing particular aspects from a distance and others on closer inspection. There will be nothing else like it at the fair.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
I always enjoy the elegance of Fine Arts Sydney presentations, especially when they have work by Hany Armanious and\/or Prudence Flint on display. I\u2019ll also be keen to explore the publications Landslide Books & Objects have on offer. Luke Brennan is presenting a new series of paintings with Laila Gallery which I\u2019m always attracted to.<\/p>\n
Darren Knight, Darren Knight Gallery<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
We are particularly pleased to be exhibiting a new, large-scale painting by Jon Campbell, titled Thank God for Immigrants (after Jeremy Deller). It\u2019s inspired by British artist Jeremy Deller\u2019s 2020 digital print of the same title, which he made during the pandemic as a response to the efforts from the NHS and key workers. Appalled by the recent scapegoating of migrants as the cause of many of the problems in Australia, this painting is offered as a celebration of decency in a time bereft of moral courage and leadership from our politicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?
My first visit will be to Damien Minton\u2019s booth featuring posters from Redback Graphix and associated artists.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?
A strong coffee.<\/p>\n
Edward Woodley, China Heights Gallery<\/p>\n
Which one artist are you most excited about showing at the fair?
As this is our first Sydney Contemporary, we\u2019re presenting a showcase of artists including Antwan Horfee, Kitty Callaghan, Kyle Montgomery, Lucy O’Doherty, Mark Drew, Max Berry and Shaun Daniel Allen. We\u2019re particularly excited about Kitty Callaghan\u2019s monumental Soft Drive \u2013 a hand-assembled mosaic of over 1,700 micro-photographic prints that effectively creates an analog algorithm.<\/p>\n
Whose work are you most keen to see at another gallery?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re keen to see friend and collaborator Mike Hewson\u2019s works. His installation blends assemblage, social sculpture and performance. Highlights include Piet pavers, an intricate mosaic floor inlaid with wood, gold, and stones, and the Frog Pond Fountain Stack, which uses salvaged concrete and a recirculating fountain for real frogs.<\/p>\n
What was your last purchase at Sydney Contemporary?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always a pleasure to pick up something from Damien Minton Presents. This year, they\u2019re showcasing original prints and stencils from Michael Callaghan and Redback Graphix \u2013 arguably Australia\u2019s most significant graphic artist\/collective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For four days each September, Carriageworks becomes a showcase of the most exciting and sought-after pieces and people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[249,255,250,253,252,251,254,227,248,247],"class_list":["post-87561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-bars","tag-broadsheet","tag-cafes","tag-culture","tag-drink","tag-food","tag-guide","tag-lifestyle","tag-restaurants","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}