The Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion designed by SANAA is set to open to the public on December 3rd, 2022. The project, dubbed Sydney Modern Project and first revealed in 2019, is the most significant cultural development in the city in almost five decades since the opening of the Sydney Opera house. The new building designed by SANAA, together with Australian practice Architectus as executive architect, features a series of pavilions of various sizes and gallery volumes cascading towards the harbour. The structure that opens toward its surroundings is designed to provide a backdrop for 21st-century art.
Located on a site overlooking Sydney Harbour, the new art museum campus will feature two buildings connected by a public art garden. The design will double the exhibition space of the existing art gallery and will repurpose a decommissioned World War II naval oil tank as an underground art space. At the same time, the project proposes the revitalization of the Art Gallery’s historic building by Australian architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer. Landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, with Seattle firm Gustafson Guthrie Nicol, and Australian landscape architects McGregor Coxall are leading the design of landscape and public spaces within the new campus.
To mark the opening of the expansion, nine commissions have been awarded to leading artists. The Sydney Modern Project will also feature dedicated spaces featuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art displays. The Art Gallery of New South Wales maintains a collection of more than 36,000 objects, including more than 2,000 historical and contemporary works of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, acquired over the past 74 years.
