The Largest Art Fair in Australia Returns: Our Top Picks of Sydney Contemporary 2025

Sydney Contemporary, Australia’s largest and most dynamic art fair, returns for 2025 with a bold, exciting program. From September 11 to 14, Carriageworks will host the ninth edition – and the biggest yet – of the annual fair, featuring 116 exhibitors, more than 500 artists and thousands of artworks.

As ever, the fair is an opportunity for buyers to gauge the current tides of artistic practice and make a purchase or two, but beyond the galleries and their stalls, there’s an intriguing line-up of performances, talks and large-scale installations, nights of food and music, as well as a shiny new addition to the Sydney Contemporary offering. Here are our highlights from this year’s program.

Photo Sydney

Making its debut as a Sydney Contemporary component, Photo Sydney showcases the innovation and imagination at the heart of contemporary photography. Among the exhibitors is a range of galleries and photographers including George Byrne, Toby Burrows, Caterina Pacialeo, Christopher Ireland, Simon Harsent and Tina FiveAsh, to name a few.

Sitting alongside the other key Sydney Contemporary sectors – Works on Paper, Future and Galleries – Photo Sydney was introduced in response to burgeoning collector interest.

“We’ve long wanted to broaden the fair’s focus on photography, and we’re delighted to finally bring Photo Sydney to life,” said Sydney Contemporary fair director Zoe Paulsen. “This new sector is a direct response to the many collectors who’ve visited the fair over the years, asking to see a wider representation of photographic work.”

Performance

The traditional art fair set-up of neatly partitioned booths filling a very large indoor space is certainly present at Sydney Contemporary. But this year’s edition goes far beyond the usual, with a compelling range of performance events on the program as well.

The headliner among these is Recital, a special live performance from artist Dr Christian Thompson AO. Fusing his Bidjara heritage with Western classical music tradition, the piece sees Thompson collaborating with composer Adam Rudegeair to combine recorded sound with live performance and a range of visual elements. Recital is being performed twice at the opening-night soiree, Art Night, on Thursday September 11.

Also among the performances is Kelekele Mo’ui (Living Soil) by Kalisolaite ’Uhila. The Tongan-born, Aotearoa New Zealand-based artist has created a remarkable all-day performance piece in which he’ll be buried up to his neck in soil. The work, which runs from 11am to 5pm on Sunday September 14 is intended to reflect questions of masculinity and tradition.

Installation

Like the performance program, Installation is a highlight of the fair. It goes beyond the gallery booth, giving artists an opportunity to exhibit ambitious, institution-worthy projects, many made specifically for the fair and carefully curated in locations around Carriageworks. This year, there are nine major artworks by artists from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand who experiment with scale, materiality and immersive experiences. Among the installations is a brilliant light-infused, sound-responsive installation by Sydney painter Jonny Niesche and renowned UK techno producer Mark Pritchard. In Helen Calder’s Stacks, paint skins are folded over each other and piled up on everyday objects. For Quality Meat, textile artist Gerwyn Davies draws on the imagery and typography of old-style butcher shop signs to explore the complexities of cultural memory (and a smidge of nostalgia). And Lisa Reihana’s ANZAC creates a spectacular entrance to the fair with a hanging tapestry of thousands of shimmering discs inspired by a waharoa, a traditional gateway to a Māori marae, or sacred communal space.

Talks

Sydney Contemporary’s line-up of curated talks around pressing topics in the contemporary art world is a source of stimulation, inspiration and – occasionally – controversy. This year, subjects include the practicalities and politics of public art; photography in the age of AI, camera phones and social media; the importance of cross-industry collaboration in the arts; and the intricacies of collecting design pieces. An intriguing Sunday morning breakfast event will feature an “ask me anything”-style forum with gallerists Andy Dinan and Tim Olsen. Over the weekend, Arts Matter journal will host a “meet the artists” series to celebrate the release of its new book, Artists by Artists, featuring portraits of 50 of Australia’s most compelling artists (30 of which are on display in the fair’s Terrace Lounge from Friday to Sunday). Catch Abdul Abdullah in conversation with Richard Bell on Saturday, and Tom Polo with Nadia Hernandez on Sunday.

The talks take place at various times across the four days of Sydney Contemporary, and can be attended with a ticket to the fair.

Kid Contemporary

Kid Contemporary features an interactive installation titled Positive! Affirmation! Workshop! from artist Glenn Barkley. The installation allows fair visitors of all ages (in this context, “kid” refers to spirit more than age) the opportunity to create works of their own at “stations” that provide materials for making necklaces, badges, stickers and more. The space also features an area wallpapered with Barkley’s own signature colourful work.

Sydney Contemporary opens at 11am daily from September 11–14. Catch live music, food and drink, and performances at opening celebration Art Night from 5.30pm to 9pm on September 11, and Friday Night from 4pm to 8pm on September 12. Tickets are available now.

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of Sydney Contemporary.