SYDNEY.- Sydney Contemporary today announced more than 85 Australian and International galleries participating in the fifth edition of Australasia’s international art fair, to be presented at multi-disciplinary arts precinct Carriageworks from Thursday 12 until Sunday 15 September 2019. Sydney Contemporary – Australasia’s largest and most diverse art fair – is an annual event, with the 2019 participating galleries hailing from five continents and showcasing artists from more than 30 countries.

Sydney Contemporary returns for its fifth edition following a record-breaking year in 2018, securing artwork sales of AU$21million and attracting thousands of collectors, curators and art enthusiasts. Sydney Contemporary facilitates the largest concentration of art sales in Australia annually and is an extraordinary boost to artists’ capacity to continue their practice and their galleries’ ability to support them, with approximately AU$10million of the total sales in 2018 returned directly to artists.

For 2019, Sydney Contemporary features a strong line-up of international galleries from France, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. More than 85 galleries will present works from over 300 artists throughout Carriageworks in Sydney’s Redfern.

This year, Sydney Contemporary will feature a significant number of galleries from Japan including returning galleries Whitestone Gallery (Tokyo, Taipei, Nagano, Hong Kong), who will present work by renowned artist Yayoi Kusama, COHJU Contemporary Art (Kyoto) and newcomers LOKO Gallery (Tokyo) and MA2 Gallery (Tokyo). Other prominent international and local galleries include Sydney's Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sarah Cottier Gallery and Sullivan+Strumpf; Melbourne's Alcaston Gallery, STATION and Tolarno Galleries; Auckland's Gow Langsford Gallery, STARKWHITE and Two Rooms; as well as Flowers Gallery (London and New York); Sundaram Tagore Gallery (New York, Singapore, Hong Kong) and Singapore's Yavuz Gallery.

The work of African artists will be prominent at the Fair with a presentation of South African galleries including SALON NINETY-ONE (Cape Town) and THE PROJECT SPACE (Johannesburg) promoting the work of female African artists. Nil Gallery (Paris) will also exhibit the work of artists from Ghana, Mozambique and Swaziland and Australian gallery GAGPROJECTS | Greenaway Art Gallery (Adelaide) exhibiting works by Democratic Republic of the Congo born, Adelaide based artist Pierre Mukeba.

This year the Fair welcomes APY Gallery (Sydney) who will present work from the Art Centres of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands of Central Australia. Galleries also exhibiting Indigenous work include Alcaston Gallery (Melbourne), Blackartprojects (Melbourne), Black Square Arts (Cairns), Cooee Art (Sydney) and Utopia Art Sydney (Sydney). Significant work by artists Erik Bridgeman and Tony Albert, both currently showing as part of The National and announced for the forthcoming Biennale of Sydney, will be showcased by Gallerysmith (Melbourne) and Sullivan+Strumpf (Sydney, Singapore) respectively.

Sydney Contemporary welcomes 17 new galleries, including: STATION (Melbourne) who will present a solo exhibition of new installation and performance work by celebrated artist Nell; Michael Bugelli Gallery (Hobart) will exhibit Henri Papin (a fictional collector invented by artists Mish Meijers and Tricky Walsh); and Fine Arts, Sydney (Sydney) will present a group exhibition highlighting the gallery’s program.

Galleries showcasing new and early career artists include Chalkhorse Gallery (Sydney) with Emma Finneran, Nathan Hawkes and Kate Mitchell; Edwina Corlette Gallery’s (Brisbane) artists Clara Adolphs and Zoe Young; Fox Jensen Gallery (Sydney, Auckland) showing Matthew Allen; Galerie pompom (Sydney) with Rochelle Haley and Samuel Quinteros; Michael Reid Art (Sydney, Berlin) with artist Brett Weir; National Art School (NAS) (Sydney) with recent graduates Claudia Brand, Sean Wadey and Zara June Williams; PAULNACHE (Gisborne) with New Zealand born artist Oliver King; Sullivan+Strumpf (Sydney, Singapore) with Ry David Bradley; Whitestone Gallery (Tokyo, Taipei, Nagano, Hong Kong) with German painter Chris Succo; and Sarah Cottier Gallery (Sydney) will show new paintings by Oliver Wagner.

In 2019, Installation Contemporary will be curated by one of New Zealand’s most respected contemporary art curators, Robert Leonard, Chief Curator, City Gallery Wellington. Designed to exhibit large-scale artworks in a diverse range of media, including moving-image, or more ambitious and conceptually driven projects that extend beyond the traditional booth presentation, Installation Contemporary presents an opportunity to view innovative, site-specific and interactive installations in the environment of Carriageworks.

Sydney Contemporary 2019 expects to build upon the success of its previous four editions, which have collectively attracted more than 90,000 visitors and recorded more than AU$60 million in art sales.

Sydney Contemporary Fair Director, Barry Keldoulis said: “Sydney Contemporary celebrates its fifth edition in 2019 and continues to cement its position as Australasia’s premier international art fair with a strong line-up of galleries from our region and beyond. The gallery list includes some of the most exciting names in contemporary art today and celebrates 300+ artists from around the globe.”

Sydney Contemporary was founded in 2013 by Tim Etchells of SME London Ltd. Etchells also co-founded Art Central (Hong Kong), Taipei Dangdai and was co-founder of ART HK, now Art Basel in Hong Kong.

Mr Etchells commented: “I’m very proud that we have created a Fair that has a broad appeal to the thousands of visitors who come every year, whether you’re a serious collector, an occasional buyer or just looking for a great day out viewing some of very best contemporary art in one of the world’s best venues, Carriageworks. We’ve got something for everyone!”