Discover Culture, The Guardian, May 2014*
There are many established Sydney galleries well-versed in finding emerging talent, from Paddington’s Roslyn Oxley9, Olsen Irwin and Sarah Cottier Gallery to Surry Hills’s Ray Hughes Gallery and Chippendale’s White Rabbit Gallery.
Yet as the way audiences look at public space changes, there are an increasing number of venues created by emerging artists themselves, driven by a lack of space and rising rents and often supported by local councils and public art initiatives. As this new wave of creativity bubbles up in the city, four cutting-edge Sydney spaces lead the way and are worth exploring.
Artspace
The exhibitions held at Sydney’s leading artist residency centre, Artspace’s studios offer a glimpse into the future of the city’s contemporary scene. Over the past three decades, the Artspace team have watched Sydney evolve, change, and impact the work made within their walls. “With online access, Australia suddenly became closer to the world,” muses executive director Alexie Glass-Kantor. “Ten years ago, organisations [like Artspace] were vastly different entities. For a long time, distance was seen as an obstruction to Australian cultural development, but I think what it did was create a culture of resourcefulness, initiative and ability to seek partnerships and collaboration.”
Artspace is one of the many artist residency centres and galleries incremental to the support and growth of the artists of the future. “Organisations [that support artist development] are really important to the city’s DNA and ensure that creativity is persistent,” says Glass-Kantor. “These precincts occur in people’s local neighbourhood, and if there’s one thing people should take away from a festival like Vivid, it is that creativity is occurring in their own backyard and has been for a very long time.”
Artspace, 43-51 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo
Alaska Projects
Housed in the depths of a once ominous concrete Kings Cross car park, Alaska Projects is an artist-run initiative born from an idea of accessibility for artists, with a DIY approach and its feet firmly in the local area’s artistic roots. “We looked at the sort of struggles artists go through and we set on creating a space that would take away the financial pressure of gallery fees and the expense of Sydney real estate,” says director Sebastian Goldspink.
In 2011, after spotting an unused mechanics office in the city-owned car park, he approached the council with a proposal to transform the space into a five by five metre gallery. “The historical legacy is that Sydney, and especially Kings Cross, has always been an amazing arts hub and we’re really proud of continuing that kind of art in this area and picking up on that bohemian bloodline.”
The space hosts a diverse range of local and international art exhibitions, as well as talks, live music, book readings and dance – inspired by, and directly tapping into, what Goldspink refers to as the “festivalisation” of the city. “Sydney has embraced large scale festivals like its no one’s business,” he says. “So this parallels an increased consumption by the general public in the broader visual culture that maybe didn’t exist a decade ago … so that has had a flow-on effect to the industry and how we talk about, and exhibit, art.”
Alaska Projects, Level 2, Kings Cross Car Park, 9A Elizabeth Bay Road, Elizabeth Bay,
alaskaprojects.com
FirstDraft
With Woolloomooloo fast becoming a hotspot for up-and-coming galleries and grant-funded artist studios, FirstDraft were smart to shift their Surry Hills base east. One of the oldest artist-run initiatives, this 20-year-old institution has a student-heavy base and is considered the jumping off point for many Sydney art school graduates. With help from Arts NSW and City of Sydney council, FirstDraft allows emerging artists to grow, experiment and showcase their work in one of their four galleries or studio spaces and the result is a true reflection of Sydney’s talented youth. “With our exhibitions, we really try to give people a cross-section of art practice in Sydney,” says JD Reforma, one of the gallery’s eight volunteer directors. “Because we have separate galleries, we can really offer visitors a multitude of works.”
FirstDraft, 13-17 Riley Street, Wooloomooloo, firstdraft.org
MOP Projects
Located in the Chippendale creative precinct, MOP is a decade-old artist-run initiative with the sleekness and grown-up attitude of a commercial gallery and a reputation for earmarking some of the best talent in Sydney. It comes as no surprise that after eight years, director George Adams went on to open Galerie Pom Pom, MOP’s commercial sister gallery. “We thought so many of our artists have been picked up by commercial galleries, why can’t we open our own gallery, put on artists that have shown and done well commercially with MOP and see how we go?” As bona fide tastemakers, many of MOP’s curated exhibitions tap into Sydney’s artistic zeitgeist and how the city itself fuels art. Those in town between 25 April and 25 May should catch local artist Marilyn Schneider’s show, Parallax Plaza, as a direct reference to this; her sculptural work reflects developments to the Sydney landscape such as Bangaroo, Darling Harbour, entertainment architecture and the city’s marinas and promenades.
MOP Projects and Galerie Pom Pom, 2/39 Abercrombie St, Chippendale, mop.org.au; galeriepompom.com
*Sponsored content for Vivid Sydney