Sydney Contemporary 2025: Sculpture

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