The Sydney art scene was out en masse last night for the opening of Sydney Contemporary, Australia’s largest contemporary art fair held at Carriageworks and directed by Barry Keldoulis.
The festival featuring 2/3 Australian artists has lined up some of the country’s best contemporary works and curated an engaging program of talks, installations and some intriguing performance art pieces. International artists include a sculpture by Colombian Fernando Botero (fetching $575,000) and artists from countries including New Zealand Hong Kong, Singapore, China,and the Philippines.
Brett Whiteley is amongst the household names whose work you can find but there are thousands of pieces to discover. Here are some that took my fancy from a first tour: Paul Ryan’s stunning green tactile painting ‘Colonial Girls Don’t Wear Pink’, Chris Dolman’s colourful ‘My Shadow’s Ghost Plays Tricks’, Annawili Highfield’s ‘Future flare’ robotic construction (pictured), New Zealander Toby Raine’s fun ‘Jimmy Page backstage in Miami with fancy coat and guitar’ and James Drinkwater’s vivid abstracts.
The dramatic, industrial Carriageworks creates a great space to wonder within where you can get pulled towards colours, shapes and textures that inspire you and discover the artists who created them, many of whom are around and happy to chat.
Bars and a food court are filled with art talk and champagne pops, all conducive to viewing, buying or enjoying art.
Those travelling by train, it’s a short work from Redfern station and you can start the discoveries early with a quick stop off at Duckrabbit gallery to check out work from Blak Douglas (also a renowned didge player) and friends. (138 Little Eveleigh Street, Redfern)
Sydney Contemporary runs until Sunday 10th September. It will return in 2018 as an annual event. Check out some photos from opening night on Ruby TV instagram.
