Taking place from 11–14 September 2025 at Carriageworks, this year’s Sydney Contemporary promises to be the largest and most ambitious edition yet. The NAS booth, co-curated by Olivia Brownbridge and Katrina Cashman, will showcase both new and recent works spanning painting, ceramics, sculpture, photomedia, and printmaking.
With prices starting at $100, the NAS presentation offers collectors and art lovers a rare opportunity to acquire pieces by Australian artists at the beginning of their professional journey’s—and to follow their development as their careers progress.
Highlighting the breadth and diversity of the National Art School’s program—renowned for its studio-based learning and practice-driven teaching—the NAS booth will feature outstanding work by emerging artists, including:
Jake Bartley (BFA Painting, 2023) presents large-scale paintings inspired by animation and pop culture, confronting themes of violence, sex, addiction, and depression while blurring the lines between high and low art.
Harrison Chao (BFA Painting, 2024) explores the interplay between technology, media, and conspiracy theories in pastel-toned, labyrinthine compositions that examine the psychological impacts of digital misinformation.
Christian Jon Bonett (MFA Ceramics, 2023) works across ceramics, installation, neon, and painting to interrogate car culture and urban architecture, critiquing constructs of identity, gender, and class.
Lewis Doherty (MFA Sculpture, 2022) creates abstract bronze and aluminium sculptures that reflect a poetic engagement with material, process, and form.
- Isabella Kennedy (MFA Printmaking, 2024), a Jawoyn, Dagoman, and Anglo-Australian artist, uses expanded printmaking to explore grief, memory, and resistance to colonial narratives through sculpture, photography, and installation.
- Rachel Mackay (MFA Drawing, 2024) works across painting, sculpture, and moving image to explore identity and embodiment, centring the female body as a fluid and shifting site of expression.
Megan McKenzie (BFA Ceramics, 2025) produces sculptural works in clay and glaze that invite introspection, using materiality and form to alter the viewer’s perceptual experience.
Taylor Steel (MFA Printmaking, 2022) pushes the boundaries of photographic and print-based media through works that focus on urban decay, disorder, and overlooked cityscapes.
- Johanna Ng (BFA Photomedia, 2022) combines experimental photography, moving image, installation, and performance to challenge visual culture, notions of truth, and self-representation. Ng recently won the $30,000 acquisitive Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize at Muswellbrook Arts Centre.
National Art School Director and CEO Dr Kristen Sharp said: “We’re proud to return to Sydney Contemporary in 2025 with a bold presentation showcasing the talent of nine outstanding recent graduates. From painting and sculpture to experimental media, our booth reflects the breadth and vitality of contemporary practice at the National Art School. It’s an exciting opportunity to introduce collectors to the next generation of Australian artists at the region’s premier art fair.”
The National Art School will showcase the work of nine graduates from 11–14 September 2025 at Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks.
 will showcase the work of nine recent graduates at Sydney Contemporary 2025, Australasia’s premier art fair, offering a compelling snapshot of the next wave of Australian contemporary artists.){kind=link}