Sydney Contemporary 2024: 6 Directors Introduce Their Booths

Directors of 1301SW, Ames Yavuz, Gajah, Martin Browne, Roslyn Oxley9, and STATION share their highlights ahead of Australasia's biggest art fair, taking place at Carriageworks from 5 to 8 September.

1. Jasdeep Sandhu, Director of Gajah Gallery, Singapore/Jakarta/Yogyakarta

Gajah Gallery's presentation is a testament to our dedication to highlighting the diversity and depth of Southeast Asian contemporary art.

Among the standout pieces is the work of emerging Balinese talent Jemana Murti, who is quickly gaining recognition as one of the most promising young artists to watch. His evocative works draw upon traditional Balinese motifs, seamlessly blending them into contemporary narratives that explore identity and cultural heritage. Murti's work is sure to resonate with those who appreciate the intersection of tradition and modernity.

We are showing the work of I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, whose success at the recent Biennale of Sydney has only amplified the impact of her bold, surreal imagery that confronts taboos surrounding desire and trauma. Deeply personal yet universally resonant, Murniasih's work remains a compelling exploration of healing and self-expression.

We are also excited to feature the work of Suzann Victor, a Singapore-born artist based in Sydney. Known for their intricate interplay of light, space, and movement, Victor's thought-provoking installations and performances engage viewers to challenge conventional perceptions.

2. Owen Craven, Director of Ames Yavuz, Sydney

Leading our presentation is Brook Andrew's immersive solo booth, featuring new sculptures that are rooted in themes of memory and identity. Bespoke forms such as a metronome pendulum and record player are crafted from sapele and ebony—materials tied to colonial histories—and engaged in a piercing dialogue with Western perceptions of time. Andrew integrates archival postcards into these objects, inviting viewers to reconsider the lives of the people depicted and honouring Indigenous knowledge systems and untold stories.

Abdul Abdullah incorporates LED into his painting for the first time, highlighting the journey of a cat protagonist through imagined landscapes. Drawing from the history of companion animals in literature, music, and fantasy, Abdullah explores how archetypes and mythologies shape our contemporary understanding. 'Encircled by would-be predators, the cat playfully rolls on the ground,' he says. 'Are they about to attack, or does its illumination suggest something otherworldly?'

It's a bumper year for Ames Yavuz—we are also showcasing over 20 artists at Paper, Sydney Contemporary's dedicated sector for works on paper.

3. Victoria Scott, Director of Sales at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Our presentation is a considered dive into our archive with works by artists including Dale Frank, Bill Henson, Sir Isaac Julien, Linda Marrinon, Imants Tillers, and Louise Hearman. These connect through conceptual narratives and innovative techniques, held together in an oscillation of monochrome textures and tonal shifts.

I want to highlight White Lines, a work on paper by Yolŋu master Mrs N. Yunupiŋu (1945–2021), showing for the first time at Sydney Contemporary. For me this beautifully encapsulates the rhythmic brushstroke and delicate handwork that defines the cadence of her mark-making. Powdery gapan (white earth) is built up and blended over densely striated lines of black stone pigment, ground by the artist's hand. The reverberations between negative and positive, foreground and background, suspend time and space and provide a moment of transcendence like no other.

Another highlight for me is Daniel Boyd's Untitled (DCPC 3). Here, the cave's entry provides an axis point to deeply layered histories. Within its darkened corners Plato's allegory of the cave unfolds. I love the mysterious illusion to this fable, where a group of chained prisoners' only reality are the shadows of the outside world cast on the cave's interior walls. Its hidden depths, like history, are illuminated only by perceived light. Perception of reality, the limitless potential of light waves and dark matter, and the stories borne in the shadows are subjects that permeate Boyd's work and are what makes them so compelling.

4. Olivia Fuller, Gallery Director of STATION, Sydney/Melbourne

STATION showcases four contemporary artists who explore the dialogue between humanity and the natural environment.

Adam Lee investigates the human condition in relation to temporal and supernatural worlds. He references sources including historical and family photographs, spiritual narratives, natural history, and music, film, and literature, and will present a suite of watercolours alongside a painting that is a continuation of his recent solo exhibition.

Jahnne Pasco-White's latest works explore her relationship with the lake by her home, whose diverse ecosystem, once teeming with flora and fauna, is now contaminated by human activity. She hand-dyes fabrics with organic materials gathered from her surroundings, complementing these with acrylic paint, oil stick, pastel, and crayon.

Isadora Vaughan's sculptural works, which are characterised by a tension between materiality and form, will traverse the floor of our booth. Informed by her interest in permaculture, material intelligence, and the interdependence of human and non-human life, Vaughan encourages us to foster a connection with nature.

Finally, Jake Walker's intimate abstract works reveal vestiges of the artist's hand. His raw, organic ceramic frames revel in the tactility and resourcefulness of the handmade, as opposed to modern mass-production.

5. Jack Willet, Director of 1301SW, Melbourne

1301SW and Starkwhite's collaborative booth highlights the emotive values of tonal continuity, featuring works primarily with a monotone or mirrored surface.

This fair is our debut presentation of the acclaimed conceptual painter Diena Georgetti, whose new series takes a meta-approach to exploring the art world's structures and conventions. The Collector developed out of Georgetti's deep-dive into ways of generating, combining, editing, and distorting from key sources, and depicts the collector, artwork, studio, and frames along the canvas border. It continues the artist's ode to art, recognising the role and shared obsession of the collector.

Sleeve I by the collaborative duo Lewis Fidock and Joshua Petherick is another standout work. This remarkably crafted object—a disfigured, artificially patinated pipe—feels at once recognisable and totally other, out of time and place. We see aesthetics attributable to the past, present, and future that offer a rich atmosphere full of disorientating emotions and sensations, and the artifice that is characteristic of their work.

6. Dominic Kavanagh, Director of Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney

Martin Browne Contemporary is thrilled to exhibit teamLab's Proliferating Immense Life – Dawn and Dusk, A Whole Year per Year, an interactive 12-channel digital installation that is sure to be a highlight of the fair.

The world of the artwork changes with the real flow of time: it grows brighter as the sun rises and darker when it sets. The flowers in the work grow and bloom repeatedly, changing with the seasons, and are influenced by the actions of viewers. When viewers stand close, the petals scatter and fall away.

The real time in which the viewer exists—the time of the city, of the continuous life of the flowers—all of these intersect and overlap while their body, the city, and the world of the artwork remain connected. Proliferating Immense Life is an overlap of different times and space. —[O]