MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME

Sydney's newest landmark is an arts space that sheds light on Aboriginal culture and Asian art to a greater degree than ever seen before in Australia

-  Zabrina Lo

When the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Art Gallery of NSW) finally opened its doors in December 2022 after a transformation project that took ten years to plan and build, Sydney Harbour had a new landmark: a modern, sleek building with white frames, glass walls and a glass atrium, which stands out from the museum's existing 19th-century, sand-coloured, neo-classical structure. This new North Building is part of the A$344-million-dollar Sydney Modern Project, the city's biggest cultural development project since the Sydney Opera House opened 50 years ago.

The expansion has almost doubled the size of the museum; the centrepiece of the Sydney Modern Project is a new standalone building designed by Japanese architects and founders of Sanaa Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, which is connected to the art museum's original building by a public art garden. The new building also includes an abandoned Second World War naval fuel tank that was repurposed as a subterranean gallery on the lowest level of the building.

The Art Gallery of NSW was founded in 1871 by a group of 30 art-loving citizens who wanted to promote art to the public, with a focus on the work of living artists. The longstanding Sydney-Melbourne rivalry fuelled their efforts, as the National Gallery of Victoria had been established in 1861 in Melbourne. When compared to other contemporary art museums in Sydney, the museum has always shown contemporary art in the context of historical art instead of just presenting contemporary pieces, says Michael Brand, the museum's director. This places it in a unique and important position today, allowing it to address the "other" cultures in the history of the art scene, which has, for the last century, been dominated by white voices and names.