Sydney Architecture Festival announces 2015 program, creative vision and four-day condensed format

The ninth annual Sydney Architecture Festival (#sydarchfest) returns in 2015 with new dates, a fresh vision and a condensed program presented from Friday 2 October until Monday 5 October, activating inner Sydney locations with a packed schedule of design and architecture inspired activities. In 2015, Archrival, a Sydney-based collective of young design creatives, in partnership with JOC Consulting, will take the reigns as the Festival Event Directors, marking the first time in the Festival’s history a directorship approach has been implemented.

“Architecture is a driver for city lifestyles to become more sustainable, connected and liveable. We wanted the Festival to capture this potential and broadcast it to a city undergoing massive change,” said Claire McCaughan, Co-Founder, Archrival.

The new format of a four-day Festival condenses the formerly 10-day long program into an action packed long weekend of talks, events, tours, competitions and activities. The program includes a mix of free to the public and ticketed events that will run from morning until late evening throughout the Festival at locations around inner Sydney.

Festival-goers are invited to participate in a diverse range of events including conversations about design and architecture; short films; food and music experiences; children’s activities and guided tours. This year’s Festival seeks to engage actively with social media, with each day of the Festival having a dedicated hashtag. The daily hashtags are: Day 1 #DesignSecrets; Day 2 #TheGoods; Day 3 #NewCity; and finishing with Day 4 #GoGlobal.

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery presents first Australian solo exhibition by Glaswegian artist Jim Lambie

Jim Lambie Metal Box (Tea Tree Orchid) 2015

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery presents Zero Concerto by Jim Lambie, in what is to be his first ever Australian solo exhibition. Presented free to the public from 13 August to 26 September, the installation invites audiences into a frenzy of multi-coloured potato sacks, bicycle wheels and a psychedelic palette of vinyl tape. Working with the existing architecture of the room, Lambie installed continuous lines of tape to the floor, adhering to his trademark style collectively titled 'Zobop'.

Raised in the 1970s, Lambie’s work is influenced by his passion for music and his installations often comment on fantasy, glamour and notably, popular culture. His work was most recently shown in Australia in 2014 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of the 19^th Biennale of Sydney, You Imagine What You Desire.

Design renders for MPavilion 2015 revealed

The renders for the second MPavilion, designed by British architect Amanda Levete's studio AL_A, have been revealed. Described as "a forest canopy", the design will utilise the latest technology in nautical engineering to create seemingly fragile and translucent petals, supported by columns that will sway gently in the wind. AL_A is collaborating with Australian specialist mouldCAM and using cutting-edge technology to form petals that are five metres in diameter, but only a few millimetres thick. 

Founded in 2014, MPavilion is an architectural and design event commissioned by Naomi Milgrom Foundation in Melbourne, Australia. Every year for four years, an outstanding architect is selected to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens. Naomi Milgrom, Chair of Naomi Milgrom Foundation notes that MPavilion 2015 is marked by a meaningful Australian-British collaboration. 

MPavilion will be officially opened on 5 October 2015 by Martin Roth, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. A meeting place for ideas, MPavilion 2015 will be accompanied by a free, four-month public program of talks, workshops and performances from October to February. 

Sydney Contemporary returns in 2015 with Sydney Art Week

Monica Rohan Deliberating 2015

Australasia’s largest international art fair, Sydney Contemporary, returns this September to take over the entire Carriageworks precinct in Redfern. Presented over four days from 10 to 13 September, the major biennial art event will feature over 75 respected galleries, over 30% of which are international. The strong gallery line up will be supplemented with a dynamic, four-day public program including contemporary video and innovative art installations.

Sydney Contemporary 2015 will also see the inaugural launch of Sydney Art Week, a new initiative of art-inspired activities for all ages held at Carriageworks and across Sydney. 

Campbelltown Arts Centre and Sydney College of the Arts to collaborate on new Imperial Slacks exhibition

Campbelltown Arts Centre (CAC) and Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) will be collaborating on a new exhibition that reunites an artist collective who formed the Imperial Slacks group at the turn of the century in Sydney. To be presented at both venues from 14 August until 18 October 2015, Cosmic Love Wonder Lust: The Imperial Slacks Project will exhibit artworks previously shown during the Imperial Slacks Project alongside newly commissioned works.

Established in 1997 within an urban cultural environment, Imperial Slacks operated over five years as a social and cultural experience which functioned as the home, studio and gallery space of sixteen artists. The artist-run space generated a new form of cultural production and inspired forthcoming contemporary art in Australia. Fifteen of these artists will be returning to exhibit in Cosmic Love Wonder Lust. The exhibition will also re-present a number of videos from the personal collections of all the artists, allowing audiences access to the history of Imperial Slacks. 

Goldberg's American contemporary art collection tours NSW

From 4 July to 30 August 2015, a major exhibition of recent works by leading contemporary artists from the United States will be unveiled at Manly Art Gallery and Museum. Beginning on American Independence Day, Stars + Stripes: American Art of the 21^st Century from the Goldberg Collection will showcase 52 works by 31 of the most exciting contemporary American artists. The free exhibition will include many works made in the last three years.

It is the first time in 47 years that a major exhibition of contemporary American art will be presented in Australia. From the private collection of Sydney-based Lisa and Danny Goldberg, Stars + Stripes will feature a vibrant selection of recent American art, from artists based predominantly in New York and Los Angeles. It will offer an insight into the next generation of important artists from the US, with works spanning between installation, drawing, photography and sculpture. 

Emily Floyd unveils new exhibition at Anna Schwartz Gallery Melbourne

Melbourne-based artist Emily Floyd works in sculpture, printmaking and public installation.  Field Libraries, running from 5 June to 11 June at Anna Schwartz Gallery Melbourne, extends from her sculptural library project Labour Garden, previously presented at the 56th Venice Biennale. Comprised of 12 free standing painted aluminium sculptures, Field Libraries 2015 includes stacks of Fair Use booklets dedicated to eccentric perspectives on the subject of work, such as Zombie Marxism and Feminist Autonomism.  

Each Field Library incorporates utilitarian paperweights. Index, 2015 is a major new series of 50 unique screen prints, representing a catalogue of Floyd’s ongoing library project and was made in collaboration with Negative Press. In her work, Floyd seeks to generate spaces for social engagement and interaction to spark discussion over contemporary social, cultural and political potentiality.