Sydney Contemporary returns to Carriageworks from 3 to 6 September for its tenth edition, bringing together more than one hundred galleries, over 500 artists, and participants from thirty-three countries. Alongside the fair’s gallery presentations, this year’s program features fifteen installation, performance, and public art projects, extending from Carriageworks to Sydney Fish Market and Barangaroo.
Here’s a spotlight of three fair presentations.
Luke Hardy
Luke Hardy, kitsune-bi foxfires #XX, 2020, 60 × 60cm / Courtesy the artist
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Appearing at Sydney Contemporary for the third time, Australian photo artist Luke Hardy presents new and recent work exploring dream and legend. A new image from his acclaimed ‘FOXFIRES’ series draws on Japanese folklore, depicting foxes and courtly figures in mysterious nocturnal encounters. Across Hardy’s photographic practice, the boundary between reality and imagination remains fluid, inviting viewers into richly atmospheric worlds shaped by mythology, storytelling, and the uncanny.
PARKER Contemporary
Matthew Hurdle, Self Portrait {when my hands relax I can sleep}, 2026, handmade paper from pulped black t-shirt and hessian on wood board, 54 × 44 × 3.5cm / Courtesy the artist and PARKER Contemporary, Queensland
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Matthew Hurdle’s new handmade paper works for PARKER Contemporary transform worn clothing and hessian into tactile surfaces, exploring memory, devotion, and vulnerability. In Self Portrait {when my hands relax I can sleep}, 2026, a worn black T-shirt is pulped and reformed into paper, turning an everyday garment associated with rest into a meditation on ritual, embodiment, and accumulated experience. The presentation also includes work by Melissa J. Harvey, Ross Woodrow, Chris Hagen, Matthew Newkirk, and Alethea Richter.
Swan River Print Studio
Zali Morgan, Boorn Koorlang, 2026, ectching and monotype on Hahnemühle, 70 × 50cm / Courtesy Renee Doropoulos
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Perth-based artist collective Swan River Print Studio makes its inaugural presentation at Sydney Contemporary with The Light We Breathe, a new body of work by Dominique Coiffait, Jo Darvall, Claire Lawson, and Zali Morgan. Responding to place and the distinctive luminosity of Western Australia, the artists explore how light shapes perception, atmosphere, and experience. The presentation brings together four perspectives on the landscape, united by a shared sensitivity to the qualities of light and place.
Art Almanac is a Sydney Contemporary media partner. Look for the Sydney Contemporary logo throughout the What’s on section of the September issue to discover more about participating galleries.
