Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks

Sydney Contemporary is back. Running from September 7 to 10, 2023, the huge four-day art fair at Carriageworks gathers the work of 500 artists showcased by 96 emerging and established galleries from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.

As well as gallery showings there will be installations, performances, panel discussions, guided tours, educational workshops and a VIP program, granting collectors, industry professionals and the public real insight into the heart of what’s happening in the contemporary art world. None here will go hungry, with on-site restaurants, cafes and bars making it a one-stop shop for an all-encompassing art and dining experience.

The Fair also hosts Art Night, one of the biggest celebrations in contemporary art starting from 5.30pm on Thursday 7 September. The evening takes over Carriageworks with performances by artists at the cutting-edge of contemporary art (Amala Groom, Riana Head-Toussaint and Fetu Taku) accompanied by music playing all through-out the evening by Sydney-siders Stereogamous.

Organisers have also announced the Talk Contemporary and Create Contemporary portions of the four-day program.

Talk Contemporary collects industry-leading figures for live conversations on art, design and architecture. With two strands this year – one focused on art, curated by Samantha Watson-Wood of events group Friends With Strangers, and another on architecture and design, curated by design editor and commentator Karen McCartney – panellists will discuss themes of love and identity, designing spaces for art, and different approaches to collecting.

They include Love, Sex and the Image, which sees Solomon Kammer, Dylan Mooney, Emma Maye Gibson AKA Betty Grumble and moderator Samantha Watson-Wood discuss artistic representations of our sexual identities; The Selfie and Questions of Identity, wherein Jack Ball, Jenny Watson, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran and moderator Sarah Rees, senior curator at the Powerhouse Museum, chat about how self-portraiture and the selfie move through portrayal, subversion, exploration and straight narcissism; as well as Designing Spaces for Art, a talk by architects William Smart, Timothy Hill and Camilla Block, moderated by Karen McCartney, about the challenges of designing spaces where art and objects are to be viewed.

There will also be panels on how industry leaders approach specifying art for interior projects; how collectors collect; what it means to include a meaningful sense of Country in the places we design in Australia; how art is represented in our galleries, institutions and events; and how editors of major cultural publications navigate topical issues.

Elsewhere over the four-day event, Create Contemporary will see an immersive creative space offer workshops, encouragement and tools for adults and kids alike. Living Edge showcases furniture and objects from the renowned Memphis Milano design movement, as well as the Guframinis collection by radical Italian design brand Gufram. And Artist Profile magazine presents the exhibition Jasper Knight: The Coral Coast, by independent Australian corporate curators 3:33 Art Projects, alongside so much more.

Sydney Contemporary takes place September 7–10, 2023 at Carriageworks. More details and tickets.

Access is giving away opening night tickets and daily passes. Get yours before there gone here.

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of Sydney Contemporary.