Sydney’s Best Art Galleries and Exhibitions in One Walking Trail

While Sydney’s outdoor art draws crowds – think: famous architecture like the Sydney Opera House and the popular Sculpture by the Sea – the city is dotted with lesser-known galleries that intrigue, surprise and delight. Tim Ross finds his culture fix on the streets of Paddington in the eastern suburbs, highlighting Sydney’s best art galleries and exhibitions in one easy walking trail.

 “You don’t have to be an art collector to come to an exhibition opening,” says photographic and video artist Leila Jeffreys. “You can just walk into all these different galleries that are scattered all over Sydney. There’s so much diversity of art you can see.” 

Visiting the city’s galleries is one of the many things I love doing in Sydney. The wonderful art scene weaves through the city, through its public art and its private and public galleries but most of all it stems through the creative people that make it. “I think that art is a really interesting way to experience the city, because you can walk everywhere,” says artist Brook Andrew, whose work can be seen at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

From big institutions like the AGNSW at the Domain and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia at Circular Quay to the small neighbourhood galleries clustered around town, an afternoon spent exploring never fails to surprise. 

Paddington, a short drive east of the CBD, has long been an artist’s hub, much like New York's Greenwich Village or London's Chelsea. I often start my self-guided Sydney art explorations here. First up is Saint Cloche, a contemporary gallery with ever changing exhibitions – one day it might be a wonderland of textures and patterns crafted from leaves, branches and seed pods by artist Tracey Deep; on another you might walk into a space filled with abstract shapes, the vision of Evi O. “Artists, I think, give an honest reflection of what the city is – good and bad, dark and light,” she says. Of Sydney, she adds, “we’ve got water, we’ve got nature, we’ve got urban [landscapes] – I mean, if you don’t love this city something’s wrong with you.”

Next is a stroll down the suburb’s historic streets, their Victorian terraces decorated with distinctive cast-iron known as Paddington Lace, on the way to galleries including Wagner Contemporary, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sarah Cottier and Roslyn Oxley9 (which has shown works by renowned Australian artists including Tracey Moffatt and Patricia Piccinini).