Exhibition view: Tom Polo, and afterwards, a garden, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (23 October–21 November 2026). Courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, established in Sydney in 1982 by renowned gallerists Roslyn and Tony Oxley, remains one of Australia's foremost commercial contemporary art spaces.
Across its autumn 2026 programme running from 23 October through 21 November in Sydney, the institution continues its longstanding dedication to advancing Australian practitioners on the world stage while presenting distinguished international creators to domestic audiences.
Over four decades, the gallery's curatorial agenda has featured prominent figures of global contemporary art, such as Erwin Olaf, Mariko Mori, Robert Mapplethorpe, Yayoi Kusama, and multi-channel film pioneer Isaac Julien.
Concurrently, the space has served as a launchpad for leading Australian artists, including David Noonan with his hybrid figurative-abstract collages, Dale Frank with his richly textured abstract paintings, and Patricia Piccinini with her hyper-real silicone and hair sculptures examining biotechnological themes.
The gallery also administers the estates of vital historical figures—notably Indigenous rights painter Robert Campbell Jnr, assemblage artist Rosalie Gascoigne, and sculptor Bronwyn Oliver—alongside representing New Zealand light artist Bill Culbert and rising voices such as installation artist Sarah Contos.
Beyond its physical gallery walls, Roslyn Oxley9 maintains a broad international and digital presence through online presentations like Dale Frank: Shaun Taught Piano and Faraway So Close, as well as regular participation in world-class art fairs including Art Basel, Sydney Contemporary, The Armory Show, Art Cologne, and Melbourne Art Fair.
The strength of its artistic roster is reflected in its institutional prestige, marked by thirteen of its represented artists being chosen to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale.
Central to the gallery's current visual dialogue is the evocative practice of Sydney artist Tom Polo, whose works navigate grief, personal memory, and emotional reconstitution.
Drawing inspiration from a garden tended by a departed loved one, Polo equates the patient nurturing of flora with the intuitive act of painting.
His compositions incorporate abstracted bodily contours—arms, legs, and torsos imprinted directly from supportive friends—that hover within ambiguous, layered spatial planes.
Through deliberate application and subsequent wiping away of paint, Polo meditates on loss and renewal, likening the process to mature sunflowers that cease chasing the daylight to rest steadily facing east toward the dawn.
Exhibition view: Tom Polo, and afterwards, a garden, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (23 October–21 November 2026). Courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Polo populates this painterly landscape with an array of eccentric, marginalized figures that emerge and recede amid swirling, dynamic brushwork.
By allowing foreground and background to merge seamlessly, his canvases maintain a palpable tension between revelation and erasure, interrogating the psychological thresholds of human connection.
Recognized with the 2015 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, shortlisted for both the Archibald and Sulman prizes in 2018, and shaped by residencies in Sydney, London, Paris, and Brescia, Polo continues to develop a deeply personal iconography that is preserved in prominent international and institutional collections.
Tom Polo slow ghost (the begin again), 2025 Oil stick and acrylic on Flexmirror 182 x 298 cm Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
