SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 2026

Lovett’s paintings draw on observations of familiar subject matter, ranging from domestic objects and everyday scenes to flowers, plants and popular culture. Through magnification, distortion, restrained palettes and heightened contrast, he transforms these observations into studies that blur the boundaries between abstraction and representation. Created for Sydney Contemporary, this new series begins with photographs from Lovett’s personal camera roll, including flowers, garden foliage and stamps featuring well-known characters such as Miffy from his children’s collection. Manipulated as photographic studies, these images guide the development of the paintings through shifts in scale, composition and contrast. The bold graphic quality of the stamps reflects the tonal intensity Lovett seeks in his final works, transforming personal imagery into compositions that move between the recognisable and the abstract.

McGregor’s graphite drawings transform ordinary objects and environments into contemplative studies of light, texture and atmosphere through meticulous mark-making and tonal detail. This new body of work grew from a recurring dream, an imagined sanctuary that developed over time into a place of refuge, safety and reprieve. Existing somewhere between the real and the imagined, these drawings explore this elusive inner sanctum, removed from the demands of everyday life. Each work becomes a meditation, built line by line across the paper, with slow deliberate process of mark-making recording the passage of time and becoming a metaphor for refuge and contemplation.

Together, Lovett and McGregor reframe familiar subjects through careful observation and material sensitivity, inviting a slowed and immersive viewing experience. At Sydney Contemporary, STATION’s presentation highlights drawing and painting as expanded fields for perceptual and conceptual inquiry, where observation becomes a pathway to new ways of seeing.