At Sydney Contemporary 2025, Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin presents a significant exhibition of new and historical works by several of Australia’s most important photographers.

Forming a core thread of the gallery’s most ambitious art fair presentation to date, Masters of Photography begins by drawing visitors into the distinct visual worlds of two of the country’s most acclaimed contemporary artists: Petrina Hicks, debuting the final four works from her award-winning Mnemosyne series exclusively at Sydney Contemporary; and Trent Parke, Australia’s first – and still only – Magnum-accredited photographer, unveiling previously unseen images from the landmark series that first brought him global acclaim more than two decades ago.

The watery currents of Hicks’s new work continue through a curated collection of photographs now in their final editions, including Narelle Autio’s cinematic surf scenes and Tamara Dean’s dreamlike undersea visions, as well as a very special offering of one of the most iconic images in the Australian photobook: Max Dupain’s Sunbaker (1937).

A rising voice in contemporary photography, Scott Perkins is exhibiting with Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin for the first time since the announcement of his representation by the gallery. Final editions of major works from the photographic archive of Dr Christian Thompson AO provide a historical counterpoint to Recital, his live vocal work headlining Performance Contemporary as part of the fair’s public program, while sun-splashed pastel portraits from the latest series by Gerwyn Davies, Calypso, similarly complement his newly commissioned, large-scale textile work, now positioned above the Carriageworks bar and dining space as a playful addition to the Installation Contemporary program.

To discuss works from our Masters of Photography exhibition at Sydney Contemporary, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

This year’s Sydney Contemporary presentation from Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin brings together an exciting assembly of contemporary painters whose technical mastery, searching intelligence and conceptual daring carry art’s most storied medium into new and innovative terrain.

The exhibition marks the Sydney Contemporary debut of two major talents who both joined our stable of represented artists in April this year after previously gaining widespread attention as finalists in the National Emerging Art Prize. Naarm/Melbourne-based Indian Australian artist Sid Pattni, a finalist in this year’s Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, arrives at the fair on the heels of his first solo exhibition at Michael Reid Sydney, The Act of Putting it Back Together, which was widely acclaimed and acquired in its entirety well before the opening. Pattni is joined by Eora/Sydney abstract painter Kathy Liu, who has emerged in recent years as one of the most admired and closely watched figures within the Michael Reid network and was recently announced as a finalist in the 2025 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

Accompanying Pattni and Liu are two of the most impressive, distinctive interpreters of the Australian landscape working today. Celebrated West Australian artist Carly Le Cerf returns to Sydney Contemporary after a succession of major career triumphs and a creatively pivotal Blue Mountains residency, while Dyarubbin/Hawkesbury-based painter Julz Beresford presents her first full-scale series of monumental mountainscapes in a rotating exhibition unfolding over the course of the art fair.

Rounding out our contemporary painting survey are Meanjin/Brisbane-based still-life master John Honeywill and Muloobinba/Newcastle multidisciplinary artist Michelle Gearin, whose presence at Sydney Contemporary coincides with her latest solo exhibition, I’ll Be Your Mirror, at Michael Reid Sydney.

To discuss works from our contemporary painting survey, please email hughholm@michaelreid.com.au

Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin’s 2025 Sydney Contemporary presentation is grounded by a trio of significant installations by three of the country’s most exciting and important artists working in the field contemporary sculpture.

Dharawal/Bulli-based multidisciplinary artist, academic and storyteller Mai Nguyễn-Long makes her return to Sydney Contemporary following a pair of career-defining institutional projects: her monumental, room-sized sculptural installation The Vomit Girl Project, which was commissioned for the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art and presented for seven months to international acclaim at QAGOMA, Meanjin/Brisbane; and her equally epic Doba Nation, which headlined the artistic program of this year’s Perth Festival. The artist’s newly completed collection of clay-formed figures debuts at Sydney Contemporary while she embarks on a prestigious two-month residency at Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh.

A pride of fabulous feline sculptures by Naarm/Melbourne-based artist Troy Emery slink, sashay and strike languorous poses in our Sydney Contemporary exhibition. Finished with silky, blush-pink tendrils and beadwork painstakingly threaded by hand, the artist’s new series dazzlingly distils his creative signatures, brought to life with a couturier’s skill and imaginative flourish. Emery’s Sydney Contemporary showing follows his most recent collaboration with French luxury house Hermès and the grand unveiling of his most ambitious commission to date, Guardian Lion – a sprawling, illuminated, kaleidoscopic sculptural landmark now soaring high above Melbourne’s Southbank.

One of the most important figures working in contemporary sculpture over the last three decades, Eora/Sydney-based artist Linde Ivimey is presenting her first new body of work with Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin since joining the gallery’s stable of represented artists in August. Working with reclaimed materials – bone, fabric, wax, metal, hair – Ivimey creates powerful figurative sculptures that are at once raw, tender and deeply personal.

To discuss works from our contemporary sculpture survey, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

Offering a powerful opening statement for our most ambitious art fair presentation to date, the entry to the Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin booth is flanked by a trifecta of magnificent new works from three of the most accomplished and acclaimed voices in contemporary First Nations art practice: Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Gaypalani Wanambi and Betty Chimney.

Wanambi’s star turn at Sydney Contemporary closely follows the announcement of her triumph at this year’s Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), the most prestigious prize dedicated to First Nations art. Working at the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre in Yirrkala, Northeast Arnhem Land, the celebrated Yolŋu artist was awarded NATSIAA’s highest honour, the $100,000 Telstra Art Award, for her monumental, multi-panel work Burwu, blossom – a tessellating installation of reclaimed road signs dazzlingly reimagined with intricately etched depictions of the epic Ancestral journeys of Wuyal. Our 2025 Sydney Contemporary presentation is anchored by another composite etched-metal piece realised on the same breathtaking scale as her Telstra work.

Award-winning painter, master weaver and 2025 Sulman Prize finalist Regina Pilawuk Wilson returns to Sydney Contemporary with a series of epic, colour-soaked canvases whose rhythmic, reverberating linework offers a contemporary painterly interpretation of a weaving tradition spanning generations. Widely celebrated internationally and recognised as one of Australia’s pre-eminent contemporary Aboriginal artists, the senior Ngan’gikurrungurr artist and cultural leader is the cultural director of Durrmu Arts Aboriginal Corporation and co-founder of the Peppimenarti community. She joins our presentation with a spectacular suite of paintings that echo the heft, intricacy and tonal depth of her Sulman-shortlisted work, Wupun (sun mat).

Yankunytjatjara artist and three-time Wynne Prize finalist Betty Chimney presents a new series concurrent with her solo exhibition Katjarunkanyi – Breaking Dawn at Michael Reid Sydney. A long-time artist and director of Iwantja Arts – the Indigenous-owned and -governed art centre in the rocky desert country of Indulkana on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands – Chimney is inspired by her ancestral Yankunytjatjara Country and her determination to maintain a strong connection to Country and culture.

The presence of Wanambi, Wilson and Chimney at Sydney Contemporary immediately precedes an exciting international foray, with all three artists set to star in Michael Reid’s forthcoming group show The Stars Before Us All in Washington, D.C. The exhibition opens next month in conversation with the National Gallery of Victoria’s landmark exhibition The Stars We Do Not See at the National Gallery of Art.

To discuss available work by Gaypalani Wanambi, Regina Pilawuk Wilson and Betty Chimney, please email tobymeagher@michaelreid.com.au

Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin returns to Carriageworks this September with our most ambitious art fair installation to date, presenting extraordinary new and collectable works by more than 20 leading Australian contemporary artists.

All works from our Sydney Contemporary 2025 exhibition – an expansive survey spanning painting, photography, sculpture, installation and more – are available to explore and acquire online below.

To discuss works from Sydney Contemporary 2025, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au