We look forward to Sydney Contemporary International Art Fair each year, and the galleries, curators and artists that will go on to inspire us for the year to come. Here, our list of the must-see works from this year’s programme, launching tonight and open to the public from September 14 -16.
Dan Kyle
@ Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
Artist Dan Kyle has always been inspired by the Australian landscape and its native flora and fauna, and you can see it in his oil on board works, displayed this year at the Edwina Corlette Gallery booth. Kyle views the bush with a loving gaze, his muted palette and compositions preserving the beauty of a world we all inhabit but rarely stop to appreciate.
Christiane Spangsberg
@ Jerico Contemporary, Sydney
The Danish artist has held a place in our hearts for a number of years, along with her minimalist, Matisse-inspired ink and acrylic line drawings, inescapably personal and emotionally honest. In her own words, “I go off with a feeling … The line is within me – the paper shows me where to go.”
Alan Ibell
@ Sanderson, Auckland
Ibell’s artworks have a pervasive stillness to them, a quiet tranquillity that belies a brooding darkness – like the reflective blue atop deep, unknown waters. Trickery of composition keeps the sparseness from feeling overwhelming, and the pastel colour palette invites a moment of repose for the viewer. We could stare at them all day.
Clara Adolph
@ Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
Inspired by old photographs and the stories imbued within, Adolph’s paintings allude to the concept of memory, history, and the scattered relationships of old friends. The medium as much a drawcard as the subjects themselves, her use of colour and thick oil lines combine to form sublime works that draw the viewer in and make new meaning from forgotten moments in time.
Prue Stent and Honey Long
@ Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
A fascination with identity, gender and the beauty and strangeness of the female body has long been of inspiration to friends and collaborators Honey Long and Prue Stent. Their large scale, hyper-coloured photographs conjoin the divine feminine with the natural landscape in works that are both stunning and surreal.
Sally Anderson
@ Edwina Corelette Gallery, Brisbane
We love Sally Anderson's abstract painterly style, and her Sydney Contemporary pieces, Sleep Sounds, use autobiographical content with dreamscape rooms, a meditation on the artist’s life at home since giving birth to her child. She gives us a whole new appreciation for the colour blue.
Holly Ryan
@ Jerico Contemporary, Sydney
RUSSH woman and a muse unto herself, Holly Ryan’s sculptures have long been favourites of ours since her debut art exhibition, A Carved Revelation. Feminine stone forms meet foraged paperbark and Cyprus pine for her Sydney Contemporary contributions, forming three-dimensional portraits of the face and body. “When I am stuck for ideas I simply create, because my subconscious always tells an interesting story.”
Imants Tillers
@ Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
Writer, curator and one of the country’s leading contemporary artists, Imants Tillers, has explored history and culture through his often large-scale, detailed canvas works for the last 40 years – his pieces incorporating text and quotations by writers, philosophers and poets from a narrative thread from one to another, and are always a personal highlight of any art programme.
Abdul Abdullah
@ Yavuz Gallery, Singapore
Not one to shy from confrontation in his work, Abdul Abdullah’s Call me by my name features several large-scale tapestries hung from a circular structure, each sitting at eye level with the audience, painstakingly embroidered with portraits peering out from behind smiley faced emojis. The work is a reaction to accusations that younger generations aren’t living up to previous generation’s expectations, and are as beautiful to view up close as they are at a distance.“My greatest source of inspiration is the political situation we have found ourselves in … when I am stuck for inspiration I watch the news.”
Sally Gabori
@ Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
The colourful, abstract paintings from Sally Gabori are always a favourite - beautiful expressions of the artist's memories and sensations of Aboriginal culture, one not to be missed.
