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It’s easy to spend a whole day in Sydney’s most extensive art gallery.

This 1950s mock Art Deco edifice housed the Maritime Services Board until it became a gallery in 1991. The MCA displays the best of international art.

Also known as the Australian Centre for Craft and Design, this gallery exhibits works by textile designers, jewellers, furniture designers, ceramicists and glass-blowers, demonstrating crafts as real art forms. Its store sells a great range of limited edition design-pieces.

A non-commercial gallery, Artspace presents contemporary works. Some shows include traditional artforms such as painting, but many lean towards the experimental through new media, installations and performance.

When Brett Whiteley died in 1992, his wife turned his studio into a memorial (see Whiteley Studio). Now an adjunct of the AGNSW, his bedroom and workspace have been left intact. Get to know the artist through his unfinished paintings or the gallery space that exhibits his work.

A public gallery owned by the National Trust, the SH Ervin presents Australian works ranging from contemporary art to retrospectives.

Founded in 1973, Australia’s longest established contemporary gallery presents the best in local and international photography and new media. A photo wall features the works of emerging artists, while the main space contains temporary exhibitions.

This is Sydney’s only Aboriginal art gallery owned by indigenous people. Combining an exhibition space with a shop, Gavala offers storytelling, didgeridoo-playing demonstrations and Aboriginal artists-in-residence who discuss their work.

Home to ten commercial galleries displaying a wide range of art, this converted warehouse is a forerunner of the new arty precinct southeast of the CBD. German Conny Dietzschold shows exciting international art, Utopia exhibits Aboriginal art and Gow Langsford presents a range of international art.

Several rooms in the Mitchell wing of the State Library present exhibitions. Shows range from displays of historical documents and letters to photography and crafts.