When Tim Etchells, founder of Sydney Contemporary, welcomed media to this year’s art fair he was non-committal on a target or goal for the event. Sydney Contemporary: optimism despite flagging salesComing into this year’s edition of Sydney Contemporary the sector had been flat – an impact not of its own making, but of a wider retraction in the economy. Read: ArtsHub’s verdict on Sydney Contemporary art fair’s hottest stands in trying timesThe news is out: art fairs are more than just salesHannah Quinlivan Performance, Sydney Contemporary 2025, Carriageworks. Sydney Contemporary was presented as the iconic Armory Show in New York wrapped up, and over the same dates as Tokyo Gendai in Japan. Etchells explains the pressures on art fairs today: ‘What’s affected art fairs, mainly internationally, is the shipping costs.