Snapshot of Sydney Contemporary

It’s that time again – Sydney’s Carriageworks is full to the gunnels with art on offer from116 eager galleries who’ve been planning for months, paying big money to ensure their appearance, bringing in their art (and sometimes artists) from around the world, and now wishing away the bloody rain that might keep the punters away who just might buy art from them.

A tense and exciting time, washed down with a bottle of champagne Pommery on each stand.

Fortunately, for a blinkered viewer like me, a fair number of those desperate galleries are offering First Nations art. None that I could see in the brand new Photo Sydney section, though the iconic Greg Weight photographs the Indigenous wondrously and he appeared on the Australian Galleries general stand. But I did count up 15 galleries in the general section and just one in Works on Paper, the veteran Aboriginal & Pacific Art.

Headlining for me were the Tiwi Puruntatameri sisters at Art Leven – Carol especially has a fresh take on the Kulama/yam image on a wide range of different bark sizes to suit a range of different pockets. Meanwhile, sister Alison has been hitting the traditional puoja/comb hard to amass dots in a subtle range of hues on barks that offer their own lumpy, erratic artistry.

D’lan Contemporary has also caught the Tiwi bug, featuring a suite of works by Jane Margaret Tipuamantumirri that are pushing Tiwi boundaries, then contrasting with delightfully familiar works by the late master, Kitty Kantilla. Dear old Prince of Wales has also come out of the cupboard, along with a rare 110-panel Nyapanyapa Yunupingu lightwork (last seen at the 2012 Sydney Biennale) and a wall of the artist’s works on paper that can be bought en masse for a mere $250,000!

Talking of light, Bardi man Darrello Sibisado has a single work on show that a) delights and b) is presumably more affordable than the maxi illuminated works he’s been creating for Biennales and Bangarra Dance. It’s worth a trek to the N Smith stand.

Is there an Emily, I hear you cry? Of course there is/are – and where else would the finest of her works be but on the Utopia Art Sydney stand, along with a wall of substantial Papunya Tula canvases. No other Kngwarreye stood out for me, but I recommend you creep round the back of the Niagara Galleries stand to discover two perfect yam root works on paper.

And while we’re still on paper, Mervyn Street from Mangkaja in the Kimberley is celebrating his cattle days with two fine action drawings of men like him at work on horseback.

Well away from paper, Michael Reed has timed his move on Gaypalani Wanambi to perfection. Just a month after she walked away with the Big Telstra at the NATSIAAs in Darwin, he has a slightly smaller work in the same style. And, just as I commented about the coverage of the NATSIAAs a month ago, Reed has chosen the back of her Wuyal work celebrating the ancestral Yolngu honey hunter in preference to her actual engraved artwork. My picture shows an assemblage of road signs that faces boldly out into Carriageworks from the Reed stand.

One of my favourite Yolngu bark men, Garawan Waṉambi (are they related?) turns up on the Hugo Mitchell stand, and his meticulous patterning comes in a variety of flavours that stand up to this mass scrutiny. Roslyn Oxley, of course, has some brilliant blue Dhambit Munuŋgurr barks; though she’s mixed them up with the opposite extremes of Kaylene Whiskey cartoons and Daniel Boyd miniatures. Whiskey’s one-time mate Tiger Yaltangki (who died last year) rises graphically from the dead on the Alcaston stand.

Very much alive is Juanita McLauchlan, the Gamilaraay lass who continues the tradition of an Indigenous artist taking out the sponsor MA Financial’s Rising Artist’s Prize. Incorporating vintage blankets and possum pelts, the judging panel declared that the Cassandra Bird artist was “intertwining native and colonial materials to create an impression of Wirdjuri Country”, where she lives. The first MA prize in 2023 went to Martu man Corban Clause Williams, and last year’s to that intriguing Aranda potter Alfred Lowe.

Talking of the Martu, Emilia Galaitis has five on her EG Projects stand this year. Elsewhere, I spotted Vincent Namatjira, Rerrkirrwaŋa Munuŋgurr, Adrian Jangala Robertson and Sally Gabori (how could you miss her?).

Finally, the ebullient Tennant Creek Brio have boosted the Cassandra Bird gallery presence if you are lucky enough to get anywhere near the VIP Lounge. For their their Anthony Gormley-sized petrochemical guardian angel has come up from ACCA in Melbourne to shock and impress the nobs on their way into Pommery heaven.

Away from the Indigenous, one artist stood out on what I suspect is the only English gallery stand – Pontone. I simply couldn’t walk past the Korean calligrapher Park Jieun’s works, and the closer you got, the more rewarding they were.

Sydney Contemporary 2025 runs only until Sunday, packed with talks, performances and even Kids Contemporary for the ankle-biters while you buy art!

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