This year Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi turns 20. On that scenic coastal strip from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach over the past 20 years more than 2000 sculptures have been installed and exhibited, and annually around half a million people come to see this 18-day-long event.

David Handley AM started Sculpture by the Sea as a one-night-stand organised out of his lounge room by volunteers and now it has become the largest annual visual arts event in Australia and possibly the single most popular sculpture exhibition anywhere in the world. It is a huge event with a $2 million annual budget, albeit scraped together from various private sources, sometimes at the last moment. It has been spectacularly unsuccessful in attracting Australia Council funding, averaging only $9200 for each exhibition, and was one of the few worthy recipients from the much disgraced and now doomed Catalyst Fund, created by former arts minister George Brandis, from funds he appropriated from the Australia Council. He is a minister who seems to have a constant problem with the word "consultation" and his idea of consulting with the arts community was telling them what he had decided to do.

The Australia Council generally views the event as popularist and lacking a curatorial rationale. Cynics would argue that the Australia Council frequently funds mainly that which is not viable without its funding, and that which is successful is starved of oxygen. It is possibly time for the Australia Council to mature and consider using public funds to fund art events that the public have demonstrated that they love and attend in their hundreds of thousands.

This year's Sculpture by the Sea is a bit unusual for two reasons. Firstly, in view of its 20th anniversary, 20 prominent sculptors, previously involved with the event, were invited to participate among the 103 exhibiting artists. These include two Canberra-based sculptors, Michael Le Grand and Phil Spelman, as well as the wonderful Inge King, who died in April of this year at the age of 100. The other reason is best described as an act of God, where the storms in June of this year battered the coastal walk so substantially that most of it had disappeared into the sea. The rebuilding of the pathway may provide safer and easier access, but I find the miles of concrete and steel particularly ugly and out of character with the organic feel of the coastline.

The exhibition itself, as always, is a mixed bag, but the highlights easily outnumber the duds and, while there are a number of well-known names, there are 35 sculptors who are exhibiting at the event for the first time. What I find exciting about Sculpture by the Sea, almost every year and this year in particular, is the mix of international heavyweights, nationally celebrated artists and others that you have never heard of and have you checking out their profiles. Some of the artists employ a well-worn lexicon, such as Jörg Plickat's huge corten steel collapsing forms or Ron Robertson-Swann's elegant welded steel creations, others stop you in your tracks, such as Richard Tipping's cut-out kangaroo with its play on semantics and ethical concerns or Ken Unsworth's tower of collapsing milk crates. You can make an important comment and still carry a bit of humour in your back pocket.

The German-born, Canberra-based artist Hanna Hoyne, who this year is a recipient of one of the four Helen Lempriere Scholarships, has made a "literally out-of-this world" creation for a cosmic re-charging station for tired humans or visiting aliens, while the Italian artist Silvia Tuccimei has created repeated forms made out of polished stainless steel that mirror their environment and celebrate flower power. Japanese and Chinese artists have for many years been a highlight of these exhibitions and this year is no different with a striking granite carving by the Japanese artist Keizo Ushio and a dramatic black granite arrowhead by Takahiro Hirata. Song Jianshu from China has woven 1000 metres of steel to coil it into a three-metre high cone, while his fellow countryman, Yumin Jing, has created a stainless steel travelling bag out of which grows a whole floral tribute. This is one of the most tantalising works in the whole exhibition.

For striking funk in neon pink, you have an organic sofa of nightmares made by Margarita Sampson, while the Canberra-based sculptor, Senden Blackwood, carves faultlessly in basalt to create a strange organic form, sliced open like an avocado, and precariously balanced on a slab of corten steel.

Even after wandering amongst the sculptures for about eight hours, I kept on coming back for more and discovering new angles with the changing illumination. Shortlists of favourites are possibly a little bit arbitrary, but I constantly revisited pieces by Lubomir Mikle, Johannes Pannekoek, Ron Gomboc, Michael Snape, Alice McAuliffe, Alessandra Rossi, Geoffrey Bartlett, Michael Le Grand, Ron Robertson-Swann, Richard Tipping, Robert Barnstone, David Horton and the two uplifting celebrations of sculpture by Inge King – Link III (2008), a celebration of terrestrial love, and Celestial Rings I (2014), a celebration of spiritual love. Both of these were created by the artist when she was in her 90s.

Good exhibitions of contemporary art are always controversial and this year's Sculpture by the Sea is no exception. However, it is an exhibition that no person interested in contemporary sculpture can afford to miss.