Firstdraft today announced the return of its popular annual Firstdraft Auction, celebrating its 15th anniversary and featuring works by more than 140 Australian artists and over 160 artworks. The 2024 Firstdraft Auction runs for 10-days, with online bidding open from 11am Wednesday 7 August until 9pm on Friday 16 August. A free exhibition of all works offered in the auction will be presented at Firstdraft’s gallery space in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo, running concurrently with the bidding period, from 7-16 August 2024 and culminating in an Artists’ Party on Friday 16 August from 6-10pm.

“The Firstdraft Auction is one of Australia’s most celebrated art fundraising events which returns critical funding to the sector. For the past 15 years, Firstdraft has raised a quarter of its annual revenue from the auction and, last year alone, the generosity of our community allowed us to deliver 29 individual exhibitions and contributed to paying 81 artists for their participation in our annual program,” said Director of Firstdraft Caity Reynolds.

Participating artists for 2024 include Tony Albert, Ken Done, Huseyin Sami, Amelia Skelton, Belem Lett, Emma Pham, Catherine Clayton-Smith and Koji Ryui. The full list of 140 participating artists will be announced on 24 July 2024.