Sydney Contemporary, Australasia’s largest and most diverse art fair, has announced a headline partnership with leading ASX-listed financial services firm Moelis Australia, ahead of the fair’s sixth edition. Sydney Contemporary 2021, will be held at Carriageworks from Thursday 9 September until Sunday 12 September.

Sydney Contemporary Founder, Tim Etchells said: “Over the last eight years Sydney Contemporary has been firmly established as the most influential fair in the region and one that is critical to growth of the local art market. We anticipate 2021 will be our strongest year yet. We are excited that Moelis Australia has chosen to become our Principal Partner as an important element of its corporate rebranding to MA Financial Group. Together we share our values of integrity and excellence, along with a passion for contemporary art.”

Sydney Contemporary 2021 returns with a refreshed identity and expects to build upon the success of its previous five editions, which have collectively attracted more than 112,000 collectors, curators and art enthusiasts, whilst recording more than AU$80 million in art sales.

Image: Amrita Hepi performance, Jacquie Manning

Sydney Fringe has announced the initial program for their new pop-up venue Fringe HQ Newtown featuring eight new works – including 3 world premieres, 3 Sydney premieres and 2 modern Australian classics – by a wide range of acclaimed and emerging Australian artists. Taking over the historic ballroom at 5 Eliza Street, the venue will be activated from April-December 2021, and will play a vital role in the Covid recovery for the independent arts sector.

The Sydney Fringe has long been championing the need for more affordable, accessible and importantly non-curated performance space in Sydney. The project Fringe HQ was created in 2018 as a way for the organisation, best known as the presenters of the largest independent arts festival in NSW The Sydney Fringe Festival, to work with their Government and provide sector partners to activate underutilised space for performance.

Presented in partnership with the 5 Eliza Trustees, the venue opens at a time when the sector fears losing many of its dedicated independent performance venues due to the impacts endured from the Covid 19 pandemic.

See details for the program HERE.

Image: Trainlord, Global Fringe 2020.

Today, the first 59 participants in the 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022) were announced. The title of this major international contemporary art event, which will be open to the public from 12 March to 13 June 2022, is rīvus, meaning ‘stream’ in Latin.

Situated along the waterways of the Gadigal and Burramattagal people, the Biennale of Sydney in 2022 will be articulated through a series of conceptual wetlands and imagined ecosystems populated by artworks, public programs, experiments, research and activisms, following the currents of meandering tributaries that expand into a delta of interrelated ideas.

Those invited to take part in the Biennale will be known as ‘participants’ rather than ‘artists’, reflecting their diverse talents, skills, practices and modes of being that extend beyond the realm of the visual arts. The participants announced today live across six continents and 33 countries such as Cameroon, Cuba, Venezuela, Slovenia, Taiwan, Tonga and the Netherlands.

See the full list and further detail at the Biennale of Sydney website HERE.

Image: Ackroyd & Harvey, The Tree Ceremony, 2015 installed at ArtCOP21 in 2015. Courtesy the artists.

Australian experimental curatorial platform Prototype has announced an additional three artists for Prototype 2021, the platform’s new three-month season featuring 12 new short works – including 11 world premieres – by 13 international and Australian artists, filmmakers and collectives. The new artist works include a series of Instagram filters by digital artist Jess Herrington and short-form documentaries dealing with environmental issues by Robert McDougall and Rachel O’Reilly.

Continuing Prototype’s work redefining the presentation of video art outside the traditional gallery space, this program will see a new short film or moving image released weekly, every Wednesday, from 28 April until 14 July 2021.  Works will be published online and issued direct to Prototype subscribers via a free e-newsletter.

Image: Still from “Rare Earth by Robert McDougall.