From the famous Koolmatrie art family of South Australia, Ngarrindjeri contemporary dancer and emerging painter Melanie Koolmatrie is from the Coorong region. A dynamic, multidimensional artist, Melanie’s practice sits at the junction of visual art and performance, tradition and innovation. Rich in luminous hues, the evocative works in her Sydney Contemporary exhibit are inspired by the meeting of her region’s Lake Albert and the pink lakes of Meningie. Here, an ancient Ngarrindjeri battlefield intersects with a sacred songline that travels through the Coorong to the Southern Ocean. Melanie will discuss her work and its derivations with Everywhen’s co-curator Susan McCulloch.
Location: Everywhen Art, Booth E04
As a continuation of his 2026 exhibition, Mantle, André de Vanny delves deeper into memory, storytelling, and iconography in his presentation for Sydney Contemporary. His paintings, drawings and sculptures negotiate the weight of the past and the instability of the present through the representation of imagined scenes of historical beauty and violent histories, alongside memories of rural Australia that shape his ochre-toned palette. In his talk, de Vanny discusses his iterative approach, which sees him paint into the early hours of the morning in a trancelike state. What emerges in his fragmented narratives collapses the roles of hero, villain, and bystander into something more vulnerable and human.
Location: Curatorial+Co., Booth E02
RSVP to [email protected]
Join Catherine O’Donnell in conversation on her new body of work in oil paint, which elevates suburban architecture and its embedded social histories through an exploration of memory, place and national identity. Balancing photorealism and abstraction, the artist’s practice examines the emotional and cultural significance of the built environment.
Location: DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, Booth B11
Join The Huxleys as they discuss Radical Joy: a simple proposition that joy is not a luxury but a necessary force in dark times. This exclusive insight will delve into their latest body of work; a celebration of luminous art as a powerful political act.
Will and Garrett Huxley (Aus/Gumbaynggirr/Yorta Yorta) are a dynamic duo of cataclysmic proportions who present queer spectacle and disco enthused wizardry across the visual art, performance and fashion worlds.
Location: MARS Gallery, Booth D05
Join artist Kenny Pittock as he discusses his latest body of work, created for the MARS Gallery presentation ‘Radical Joy’ at Sydney Contemporary 2026. Throughout the talk Kenny will share the ways he finds meaning in the seemingly mundane, to playfully reveal the humour and the human in our everyday lives.
Kenny Pittock is a Melbourne-based artist who works with ceramics, painting and drawing, and uses humour and sentimentality to respond to contemporary Australian culture.
Location: MARS Gallery, Booth D05
Location: CASSANDRA BIRD, Booth B13
Please join us at booth F03 for an informal conversation and tour of our Sydney Contemporary presentation. Harriet Goodall and Ochre Lawson will be present and discussing their practices and works for the fair. We look forward to meeting with visitors and helping them to discover these exciting artists and their work.
Location: Jennings Kerr, Booth F03
In conversation with Sophie Vander, Director of Curatorial+Co., Dr Saffron Newey discusses her interdisciplinary practice spanning painting, drawing, and digital media, as well as her interrogation of the internet’s impact on the original art object. Newey’s work navigates five centuries of Western art history, drawing from sublime landscape traditions — referencing Dutch Baroque, French Rococo, American and Norwegian Romanticism, and stock photography clichés. Sourced from online archives and digitally reimagined through painting, her landscapes reflect a contemporary sublime: the internet itself. Join Newey and Vander for a discussion on hyper-romanticism and paintings as visual ‘power ballads’ — dedications to longing, memory, and lost connections.
Location: Curatorial+Co., Booth E02
RSVP to [email protected]
Location: SABBIA, Booth A09
Join gallery artist Joseph McGlennon as he takes us through his new series Dark Vivarium. Situating itself within a lineage of ornithological study in the scientific and aesthetic traditions of the Victorian era, these images are not constructed through artificial means but are grounded in direct engagement in the natural world. Each bird has been photographed on location, reinforcing a commitment to observation and asserts the enduring importance of witnessing being present in the field.
Location: OLSEN, Booth D13
