Art Market Report 2024
Centre: Emily Kam Kngwarray | Alalgura 4 1991 | Sold for AUD $900,000 at Sydney Contemporary 2024
Over the past year, Australian First Nations art has experienced a remarkable ascent in international prominence, and I am delighted to present this year’s Art Market Report from an international perspective – a perspective which we are fortunate to be a part of.
This significant rise in visibility, awareness, and appreciation has been propelled by several macro factors, including a select group of high-profile gallerists exhibiting and participating in major international art fairs.
However, there was no more important factor than Archie Moore’s historical win at the Venice Biennale 2024.
Several other museum exhibitions which have had, or will have, considerable contributary effect are Maḏayin at Asia Society in New York, (and the corresponding symposium event at The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art), Emily Kam Kngwarray’s retrospective, which travels to the Tate Modern, London in July and the announcement of The National Gallery of Victoria’s collaborative exhibition The Stars we do not See at The National Gallery of Art, Washington.
So, without further delay, let’s dissect this year’s art market results:
AUCTIONS
In 2023, and again in 2024, we reported that Sotheby’s New York had confirmed that they would continue their foundational work in this important segment by scheduling their own auction of Important Aboriginal Art in May 2023. This was followed by a fast-paced statement from Bonhams New York announcing an auction of Aboriginal Art in June 2023.
Both houses clearly saw an opportunity waiting to be seized, but to date, neither auction has transpired.
According to Australian Art Sales Digest, auctions of Australian Indigenous art recorded a healthy total of $13.5 million in 2024 compared to $12.8 million in 2023. 2024 saw an uplift at auction houses in Australia – in part due to the void left by inactivity internationally.
In a more significant and positive moment, on 6 March 2024, we saw a spectacular painting by Emily Kam Kngwarray make history by appearing in a non-delineated Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction at Sotheby’s London, alongside a stalwart of modern and contemporary masters such as Picasso and Matisse. The painting faired exceptionally well, achieving a well-deserved USD $810,000 (inc. BP).
As international auction houses continue to shift the focus of their Fine Art auctions to become more inclusive – partly in response to and buoyed by prominent collectors broadening their areas of collecting – we celebrate the fact that Emily was the first female Indigenous artist to break through this barrier at auction. However, with a lack of dedicated auctions in Australia and internationally, we are missing a crucial platform from which to raise the profile of this important segment.
In response to this void, I am delighted to share that D’Lan Contemporary will present our major annual secondary market exhibition SIGNIFICANT across all our galleries – New York, Sydney, and Melbourne – in May/June 2025, providing far greater international exposure to and access for our audiences in these three important locations.
A breakdown of Australian First Nations Art Auction Results 2024 (AUD $13.5 million total):
- Sotheby’s, New York: N/A
(AUD $4,505,822 (inc. BP) May 2023) - Deutscher + Hackett, Melbourne: AUD $2,358,204 (inc. BP) March 2024
(AUD $3,262,950 (inc. BP) March 2023) - Art Leven (formerly Cooee), Sydney: AUD $1,232,906 (inc. BP) March 2024 + AUD $1,611,204 (inc. BP) November 2024
(AUD $2,211,116 (inc. BP) November 2023) - Leonard Joel, Melbourne: No dedicated auction in 2024
(AUD $755,080 (inc. BP) August + November 2023)
When assessing these results, one important element stands out. Art Leven made a noticeable change in their accepted provenance criteria in 2024 – which provided clarity, and in turn generated a result that placed them in the lead amongst other Australian auction houses.
We applaud this change in tactic and were pleased to witness the confidence it brough to their auctions, and to this critical segment of the market.
And, two artists stand out among the overall results. Lin Onus and Emily Kam Kngwarray who occupy 9 of the top 10 prices. Lin Onus’s Yellow Lillies 1993 sold for AUD $552,273 (inc. BP) at Deutscher and Hackett and Emily’s Alalgura 1994 sold for AUD $412,500 (inc. BP) at Art Leven.
The only exception to this was Ginger Riley Munduwalawala’s monumental work, Christmas At Old Roper River Mission 1995 – 96 which eclipsed his previous record and sold for AUD $245,455 (inc. BP) at Deutscher and Hackett.
Above: Lin Onus | Yellow Lillies 1993 | Sold for AUD $552,273 (inc. BP) at Deutscher and Hackett
MUSEUMS + INSTITUTIONS
From Canberra to Venice, New York to London, Paris and beyond, Australian First Nations art took central stage in 2024.
The announcement that Kamilaroi/Bigambul artist Archie Moore had won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale 2024 propelled First Nations art and culture into the international spotlight early in the year. Moore’s spectacular installation, kith and kin, was celebrated by the jury for its “strong aesthetic, its lyricism and its invocation of a shared loss of an occluded past.”
The National Gallery of Australia’s celebrated Emily retrospective is set to be transformed before it travels to Tate Modern, London this year. It has been a privilege for us to support the exhibition by connecting curators Kelli Cole, Kimberley Moulton, and others at the Tate with our clients to help facilitate exhibition loans and just as importantly, donations.
If you would like to donate to the exhibition, you can do so here.
The Tate exhibition, which will be the first large-scale presentation of Kngwarray’s work ever to be held in Europe, will lead the museum’s 2025 programme and – I am told – later travel to the U.S.
The monumental touring exhibition, Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting From Yirrkala in the U.S., organised by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection opened at the Asia Society, New York in September. Curated and narrated by the Yolŋu people of north-eastern Arnhem Land, the exhibition provided a fascinating insight into the history of Yolŋu art practice.
Maḏayin coincided with our presentation of the work of Gunybi Ganambarr in our new, New York gallery, and with a significant talk at The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, Where Two Worlds Meet: Curating Aboriginal Australian Art in the United States.
And of course, one of the most exciting announcements of the year was the National Gallery of Victoria’s upcoming collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art will be the largest exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art ever presented internationally and will introduce their art and culture to vast audiences across North America.
Finally, we also look forward to 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art opening at the Ian Potter Museum of Art in May this year, presenting over 400 artworks.
D’LAN CONTEMPORARY
2024 was another important year for D’Lan Contemporary, in which we opened new spaces in New York and in Sydney, and participated in Frieze Masters, London for the second time.
I am thrilled to report that our overall sales totalled approximately AUD $30 million – with Australian gallery sales amounting to AUD $21,630,000 and New York gallery sales to approximately AUD $8,345,000 (after USD to AUD conversion).
Emily was at the forefront of this continued growth, with sales overall totalling AUD $11,420,000.
Other noteworthy sales in 2024 included Emily’s Alalgura 4 1991 which sold for AUD $900,000 at Sydney Contemporary, the monumental Rockholes near the Olgas 2007 by Bill Whiskey which sold for AUD $650,000 in SIGNIFICANT 2024, and Paddy Bedford’s Dingo Spring 2004 and Thoowoonggoonarrin 2004 which each sold for USD $250,000 – a new record for the artist – at Frieze Masters, London.
Bill Whiskey | Rockholes Near The Olgas 2007 | Sold for AUD $650,000 | SIGNIFICANT 2024 | D’Lan Contemporary Melbourne
Even more extraordinary, amid a perceived overall international contemporary art market ‘downturn’ – we experienced record sales across the latest September and December quarters in 2024.
So, why is this?
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS & PROFIT SHARING
We are pleased to report that – through our profit-sharing, voluntary initiatives and legislated copyright and resale royalty fee contributions – D’Lan Contemporary will share over AUD $645,000 directly with community and/or for indirect community benefit.
We also donated USD $50,000 from our New York gallery to two important overseas exhibitions in this past calendar year:
Community Contributions: AUD $416,000 (either already paid or committed to in FY’2025)
Overseas Exhibition Contributions: USD $50,000
(Emily Kam Kngwarray at Tate Modern London and Maḏayin at Asia Society New York)
Resale Royalty Fees: AUD $193,250 (voluntary and mandatory combined)
Copyright Fees: AUD $36,054
After disclosing these figures in last year’s report, I was asked to specifically indicate where the money was distributed. So, below is a breakdown of our contributions:
- Direct Contributions (Community Art Centres, DesArt, for specific projects): AUD $195,000
- Institutional Donations for Australian First Nations benefit (NGV, NGA and QAGOMA): AUD $184,000
- Indigenous Scholarship Funds (Aurora and Caulfield Grammar): AUD $10,000
- Indigenous Art Code (for realisation of a specific project): AUD $15,000
- Artworks Donated for Charitable Auction: AUD $6,000
- Miscellaneous Donations supporting Indigenous welfare: AUD $6,000
- Tate Modern London and Asia Society New York Supporting Donations (Emily and Maḏayin exhibitions): USD $50,000
We strongly believe that our continued commitment to giving back 30% of our net profits to benefit artists and community is what continues to drive our growth (even against all adversity).
With continued support at ground level for emerging artists, their culture and their communities, this segment of the art market will not only sustain, but thrive.
It is our hope that – through our ongoing success and transparency – that this model will, one day soon, become industry standard.
NEW YORK
Following a successful first year in New York in 2023, in which we quickly outgrew our 81st Street space, we pivoted to a new gallery space on East 73rd Street and opened with a second sell-out solo exhibition by the extraordinary Yulparitja/Mangala artist, Daniel Walbidi.
Daniel Walbidi: Yurlupirti – Forever Without End (eternal) installation view | D’Lan Contemporary New York
Another community collaboration ensued, with a solo presentation of the equally extraordinary Yolngu artist Gunybi Ganambarr and Buku Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre, in what was another near sell-out exhibition.
The Hicks Collection of Eleven Exceptional Works by Emily Kam Kngwarray is still on view in New York, and we will have some thrilling news from this exhibition to share with you soon. Stay tuned, as the news is HUGE…
MELBOURNE
Our founding gallery in Melbourne currently provides the most scope and opportunity to create exciting projects and develop our vision for the future. One of those projects this past year was working with artists and community from Aurukun in North Queensland. The exhibition Aak Ngench Thayan – Strong Country, presented in collaboration with Wik & Kugu Art Centre, was a unique and memorable experience for us, and everyone who visited.
We are looking forward to offering more exploratory cultural experiences for our audiences in future.
As previously mentioned, our major annual secondary market exhibition SIGNIFICANT will be presented across our three galleries in Melbourne, Sydney, and New York in 2025. This will be a departure from SIGNIFICANT being a mainstay of the Melbourne gallery only and we are excited about this progression and where it will take the market.
2024 concluded with CLEVER MEN, a survey of three important Pitjantjatjara artists – Harry Tjutjuna, Dickie Minyintiri and Tiger Palpatja. This extraordinarily beautiful exhibition, which was led by Vanessa Merlino, was electric and enlivened the end of year market activity.
SYDNEY
After several conversations with leading collectors and industry colleagues in the first half of the year, who repeatedly told us that there was huge opportunity for us in Sydney, we made the decision to open our third gallery space in the heart of the city’s art precinct on Queen Street, Woollahra in November.
The announcement was made at a private event just before our participation at Sydney Contemporary. We went on to experience our most successful Fair, exceeding AUD $1.7 million against a total of AUD $17 million for the entire Fair.
This was followed by over AUD $1.2 million of sales in our first exhibition, Reverence at our new Sydney gallery. This bodes well as we move into 2025 and confirms that it is important for us to be in the city so that, alongside our exhibition and events programmes in Melbourne and New York, we can continue to further develop this critical segment of our country’s art market here in Australia, where it all begins.
A NEW DIRECTOR
Along with this increase in exhibition programming scope, we were thrilled to welcome Luke Scholes as Director in 2024. Luke will support our vision to further collaborate with and represent First Nations artists and art centres, and to lead a series of curated primary and secondary market exhibitions at our galleries in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, and at international art fairs. Luke will also help direct our community contributions to ensure they are as productive and effective as possible and are directed to where they are needed most.
FRIEZE MASTERS
We were honoured to represent of The Estate of Paddy Bedford in 2024 and to celebrate his legacy with the publication of a book dedicated to his works in gouache and an international exhibition programme that culminated in the presentation of his work at Frieze Masters, London – our second at the Fair.
The solo exhibition, Paddy Bedford: Spirit & Truth totalled USD $1.3 million with record prices achieved for Dingo Spring 2004 and Thoowoonggoonarrin 2004 – each selling for USD $250,000.
Paddy Bedford: Spirit & Truth | Frieze Masters, London
2025
We thank you for your continued support in 2024, and hope that you’ll join us for what promises to be another exciting year for Australian First Nations Art, and for D’Lan Contemporary, in 2025.
Our 2025 programme will commence with a two-site exhibition – at our Melbourne gallery and Melbourne Art Fair – in a new collaboration with celebrated Tiwi artist, Timothy Cook. Elsewhere, this will be followed by our participation in one of the world’s most prestigious Fairs, TEFAF Maastricht, and a collaborative exhibition with PACE London. More news to come on these, and other projects very soon…
Founded in Australia, this market is now firmly established internationally, and is further buoyed through collaborations with community art centres – circling back to where it all begins. Now, having captured the attention of, and secured a position within the global lens, it is vitally important that we maintain that.
D’Lan