I was lucky enough to visit Sydney Contemporary a little early this year at Carriageworks, and it was nothing short of a sensory overload, in the best possible way.
Over one hundred and ten galleries, more than five hundred artists, and a sprawling mix of installations, performances, talks, workshops, and interactive works. As a first-timer, I felt like a guppy in a vast art ocean - surrounded by conversation, connection, and creative energy.
Art is an obscure and powerful thing that we’ve all come to appreciate. It can deliver deeply urgent ideas or offer light, playful moments, sometimes both at once. It confronts, surprises, confuses - and that’s exactly why we need it. Art allows for ambiguity and reflection. It helps us see differently, think more openly, and stretch beyond our own experience.
You don’t have to “get it” all (I definitely didn’t). Sometimes, just showing up, feeling something - even discomfort, is more than enough. So when the opportunity comes, go. Here’s a roundup of the artists and works that stayed with me long after I left.
Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert
A major figure in Australian contemporary art, Sally Smart is known for her large-scale assemblages made from felt, canvas, and screen-printed fabric, grounded in identity politics and feminist history. I was struck by how her collaged forms, seemingly disparate, came together with such cohesion, creating new shapes, narratives, and meaning.
Her recent exhibitions, including Flaubert’s Puppets and The Artist’s Ballet, delve into the legacy of modernist women artists, using cutting, layering, and performance as both method and metaphor. Smart’s work doesn’t just reference history - it reconstructs it, placing women’s creative labour at the centre of the story.
