Collector Oksana Wainwright bought her first painting by Emily Kame Kngwarreye 27 years ago for $3000.
On Saturday she was one of a crowd of thousands at the Sydney Contemporary art show, where a Kngwarreye has sold for $1 million.
“Kngwarreye’s work has the power, when it’s this sort of level, to really just knock people off their feet,” said Christopher Hodges from Utopia Art Sydney.
“The collectors that are looking at her work now are the really serious collectors in Australia and internationally who have cottoned on to what’s happening,” he told AAP.
The 2023 Sydney Contemporary show at Carriageworks is the largest so far, with works from 500 artists and 96 galleries on display.
There are dozens of gallerists brimming with optimism, and Hodges believes buyer confidence is much higher than last year.
It’s something he puts down to broader cultural and political changes.
“The audience this year seems to have opened their hearts to art a little bit more,” he said.
“I think we’re seeing a complete shift in the way that art has been valued by our leaders.”
The Kngwarreye went to a well-known collector in the first half hour of opening night, and the sale had Hodges feeling nostalgic: it was Utopia Art that sold her first painting back in in 1989.
Since then, the late Anmatyerre artist has been collected by prestigious international institutions such as the Tate Modern, while the National Gallery of Australia is staging a major exhibition of her work over summer.
Utopia Art has also sold several works by leading Papunya Tula painters, including a painting by Freddy West Tjakamarra which was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia.
Two other artists it represents made work specifically for Sydney Contemporary, and were still adding the finishing touches days before the show.
Both works, Kylie Stillman’s Rusty Gum 2023, made from 300 sheets of aluminium, and Kirsteen Pieterse’s Interregnum made from plywood and steel, scored red dots.
“Both artists pulled out all the stops, these are brand new works that have never been seen before,” said Hodges.
Oksana Wainwright no longer buys art: her one bedroom apartment is crammed with paintings, and she loves having them on the wall.
Sydney Contemporary is on at Carriageworks in Sydney until September 10.
