Museum of Contemporary Art & Art Gallery of NSW

Australia's leading museum dedicated to exhibiting, collecting and interpreting the work of today's artists, and guided by the principles of belonging, connection and influence, the MCA aims to be the defining platform for contemporary art and ideas in Australia and beyond. Occupying a large, six-storey Art Deco-style building on the western side of Circular Quay, formerly the headquarters of the Maritime Services Board, their evolving Collection of over 4,500 artworks is the only public collection in Australia dedicated to the work of living artists, with over a third represented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. 

'The Bar at the Crystal Ballroom' by Jenny Watson who was born in Melbourne

but lives and works in Brisbane

'Shimmer 2000' by Hilarie Mais - oil on wood

'Surfer Funeral for Liberty 1, 2019' etching by Shaun Gladwell from Sydney 

'Nadi ga Gundirr' by Mulkun Wirripanda, earth pigments on bark

'Nadi ga Gunndir, 2019 by Mulkun Wirripanda, natural earth pigments on hollow log

Earth pigment detail of the hollow log

'Nadi ga Gundirr' by Mulkun Wirripanda, earth pigments on bark

Close up of the earth pigments of bark 

'Mnemosyne, 2021' 16mm film transferred to video, by David Noonan

Peering down to the Lobby of MCA from 2nd floor gallery

'Manchester Driftwood 2025' by Yasmin Smith, from Sydney

Sydney Harbour salt glaze and Barangaroo sandstone clay on steel, by Yasmin Smith

Each of the stoneware vessels were all handmade and absolutely unique,

and salt-harvested made from clay that Smith produced from pulverised sandstone waste from the nearby Barangaroo, were produced and fired on site in a purpose-built salt kiln

Sydney artist Yasmin Smith 

'Chicxulub' white stoneware with 45 data-derived glazes, by Yasmin Smith

have been retro engineered by Smith from geological samples taken 1.3 km beneath the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico, site of Earth’s fifth mass extinction event that destroyed 

80% of Earth’s species 66 million years ago

'New World Order' single channel video by Hayden Fowler, from New Zealand

Enjoying a cup of tea at MCA Café, some wild parrots were snacking on sugar packets

they found and pecked them open

Art Deco Archibald Memorial Fountain, was a gift to the citizens of Sydney to commemorate 

the association of Australia and France during World War I 

St Mary's Cathedral

A crazy sculpture of a kangaroo with a Christmas hat outside a restaurant

on our walk to the Art Gallery of NSW was too hard to resist

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of Australia's leading art museums 

and holds significant collections of Australian, European and Asian art

'Multi-Armed Bi-Head 2020' by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran

From its magnificent site in Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of Australia's pre-eminent art museums, and holds significant collections of Australian, Aboriginal, European and Asian art, with one of the best collections of Australian art in the world, and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the Country on which it is located, the Gadigal of the Eora nation, recognizing their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

One of the Australian Art Galleries

'Beach Scene' by Arthur Streeton, 1890

'A Summer Morning' by Rupert Bunny, 1908

 Bronze 'Truth' by Bertram Mackennal, 1894

'Sir Henry Parkes' by Tom Roberts, 1922

was five time premier of New South Wales

'Banks of the Marne' by Paul Cezanne, 1888

These 'Tamat' or fern figures, are used ceremoniously by the ni-Vanuatu people

on the Banks Islands and Malakula, Vanuatu 

'Seeking for Gold' by Walter Withers, 1893

Detail of 'Careening' by Tristram Hillier, 1939

who was my husbands grandfather

'The Bicycle' by Fernand Léger, 1930

A Sydney Shield from 1800's by an unknown Southeast regional artist

The Pukumani ceremony is unique to Tiwi, and is a 'final goodbye' to the deceased,

with singing and dancing accompanying the placement of tituni around the gravesite

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