When Art Meets Commerce: The Power of Cross-Industry Collaboration
Four industry-leaders discuss strategies for forging and nurturing meaningful relationships between artists & designers, architects & decorators with art consultants, curators, galleries and collectors – and how these deep relationships benefit the sector as a whole. A linchpin leading Sydney art dealer Joanna Strumpf is joined by a prominent Auckland design/art space Director, Zoe Black and visionary artist Jonny Niesche whose commissioned collaboration with Gucci has been emblazoned across SoHo, New York. Hear how you can optimise on the growing opportunities between cross-industry collaboration. This will be followed by a guided tour of select gallery booths throughout the fair.
Zoe Black | Speaker
Jonny Niesche | Speaker
Stephen Todd | Moderator
Joanna Strumpf | Speaker
Zoe Black (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Pākehā) is the deputy director of Objectspace, a public gallery dedicated to craft, design, and architecture in Aotearoa New Zealand. She works across curatorial programming, community and international development, and programme delivery. Black’s curatorial practice centres community development and advocating for critically under-represented making and object art forms. She was Norwegian Crafts’ curator in residence (2020–22), working on projects that create a dialogue between Indigenous making practices in Aotearoa and Sápmi, is part of The Indigenous Curatorial Collective (ICCA), works with the advocacy group Art Makers Aotearoa, and contributes governance, advisory and writing to arts and cultural initiatives.
Jonny Niesche (born 1972, Sydney) draws on the traditions of romanticism, abstraction and minimalism to explore our perception of light and space. His work nods to abstract expressionism – Rothko particularly – but its slick finish disavows the artist’s hand and any sense of existential struggle; instead, we find a love of cosmetic counters and custom-car paint effects imbued with iconic religiosity. Jonny has exhibited extensively at international galleries including in Amsterdam, Spain, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Vienna, and has most recently collaborated with Gucci for their Art of Silk series. His work is held by the Thyssen Collection, Spain; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Art Gallery of South Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of New and Old Art, Hobart; Artbank Australia, and in private collections in Europe, U.K., U.S.A, South America, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Jonny holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) and a Master of Fine Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, the University of Sydney. He is represented by 1301SW, Melbourne and Sydney; Starkwhite, Auckland; 1301PE, Los Angeles; and Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam.
Joanna Strumpf is the Co-Director of Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney. Established in 2005 with Ursula Sullivan, the gallery is now one of the leading spaces for contemporary art in Australia. After graduating from a Bachelor of Arts with Double Major in Art History at the University of Queensland (BA HONS) in 1996, Strumpf held positions at Eva Breuer Art Dealer (Sydney) and Savill Galleries (Sydney) and was appointed Head of Paintings at Lawson-Menzies, and as an Art Specialist at Deutscher Menzies (Sydney), before founding Sullivan+Strumpf. As a devoted and passionate advocate of the arts, Strumpf is an ambassador of the Museum of Contemporary Art and serves on committee for the gallery’s Annual Artists’ Ball (MCA, Sydney); Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW, Sydney), National Gallery of Australia (NGA, Canberra), Queensland Art Gallery (QAGoMA, Brisbane), and Home of the Arts (HOTA, Gold Coast); and is a board member for Melbourne Art Foundation. In 2021, Strumpf and Sullivan created The First Nation’s Fellowship Gift Fund in partnership with The Institute of Modern Art (IMA, Brisbane), that looks to give opportunities to emerging First Nations curators through projects with the IMA. Sullivan+Strumpf works with over 40 contemporary mid-career and established artists from the Australia and the Asia Pacific region and has guided the career trajectories of some of the most prominent contemporary artists working today. With an extensive exhibition schedule of solo and annual group shows, the gallery regularly participates in key national and international art fairs, including Art Basel Hong Kong, Taipei Dangdai, West Bund, Shanghai, Melbourne Art Fair, and Sydney Contemporary. In 2016, Sullivan+Strumpf opened a second gallery space at Singapore’s Gillman Barracks, the first Australian gallery to establish a permanent presence in Asia. In 2022, Sullivan+Strumpf expanded nationally to open their first location in Melbourne, Australia.
Stephen Todd began his writing career in Paris in the early 1990s where his immersion in the worlds of fashion, art, architecture and design saw him well-placed to contribute essays to journals of record including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Australian and Le Monde, and magazines including Wallpaper*, Blueprint, Fantastic Man and American Vogue. Returning to Australia in late 2010, today he is the Design Editor of the Australian Financial Review newspaper and the Head of Publishing at Powerhouse Museum.
Curated by Stephen Todd
A valid ticket to Sydney Contemporary 2025 is required for entry to this talk. We recommend arriving 10 minutes before the talk’s start time. Buy tickets now.
Image Credit: Jonny Niesche, Transmitter, receiver (Moonlight mile), 2022. Photo courtesy 1301PE Los Angeles.
