Sydney Contemporary 2023
Gretchen Albrecht, Matt Arbuckle, Conor Clarke, Jude Rae, Elizabeth Thomson

For Sydney Contemporary 2023, Two Rooms will showcase the work of five of our represented artists: Gretchen Albrecht, Matt Arbuckle, Conor Clarke, Jude Rae and Elizabeth Thomson. Recent years have seen these artists secure commercial and critical achievements both within New Zealand and abroad.

They are various in their media of choice, with large scale abstract paintings by Albrecht and Arbuckle, finely detailed artworks executed by Rae and Thomson that blur the boundaries between still life and the real world, with Thomson producing works that capture the startling marvels of nature in an aesthetically compelling manner. Finally, photographer Clarke created a beautifully haunting and elegiac series that remind the viewer of the importance of our relationship to the natural world.

All five artists will be presenting previously unseen artwork that engage with some of the most pressing contemporary themes, reinvigorating the dialogue around current socio-political concerns brought about by the use and misuse of natural resources.

Of special interest will be the premiering of new paintings in a dedicated space by Gretchen Albrecht, commissioned for Sydney Contemporary. Here Albrecht will take the opportunity to demonstrate her chromatic powers with a selection of stained and painted canvases – a record of her reflection on the current universal concern around threatened environments and landscapes.