The Water Understands
13 December 2024 – 16 February 2025
The Water Understands takes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem Water as a starting point. In the poem, Emerson imbues the element of water with subjective human experiences – understanding, heartbreak, wit, the ability to destroy, and alternatively the ability to enjoy pleasure. It is the understanding, or the water’s metaphorical ability to imbue us with knowledge, which is at the core of this exhibition – knowledge of the past, cultural knowledge, traditional knowledge, poetic knowledge, political knowledge, and aesthetic knowledge – knowledge systems which inform the artists and artworks in this exhibition.
The artists selected for The Water Understands work within a broad range of cultural narratives, and using different media, allowing for an exhibition that thoroughly interrogates the metaphorical qualities of water from multiple perspectives.
This exhibition is supported by Sydney Festival 2025, and is a MAG&M CEAD Collective for Environmental Art & Design initiative.
Participating artists:
Leah Bullen, Michael Cook, Tamara Dean, Keg De Souza, Shaun Gladwell, Phillip George, Gregory Hodge, Miguel Angelo Libarnes, Anna Madeleine Raupach, Douglas Schofield, Angela Tiatia
Water: Collection Stories
13 December 2024 – 16 February 2025
In this exhibition, ceramics, paintings, prints and photographs from MAG&M’s varied Collection coalesce to focus our attention on water.
A collection-response to The Water Understands exhibition in the adjacent galleries, Water shares stories related to our aquatic world: sea-level rise, plastics pollution, urban development, human migration, weather events, global warming, and the wonder of the natural environment.
Audiences are invited to consider the ways in which artworks have the power to stimulate conversations, raise questions, and inspire discussions about this vital resource upon which all life on earth depends.
Artists include Herbert Badham, Julie Bartholomew, Peter Battaglene, Geraldine Berkemeier, Michael Callaghan, Barbara Campbell-Allen, Margaret Coen, Grace Cossington Smith, Pam Debenham, Peter Dittmar, Simone Fraser, Honor Freeman, Harold Greenhill, Euan Macleod, Reg Mombassa, Tom Roberts, Shorty Jangala Robertson, Wendy Sharpe, Garry Shead, Mitsuo Shoji, Penny Smith, and Anne Zahalka.
Out Front 2025: HSC Visual Arts from Sydney’s Northern Beaches
21 Feb 2025 - 6 Apr 2025
A curated selection of artworks by HSC Visual Arts students from the 21 secondary schools across Sydney’s Northern Beaches supports the creativity of local emerging arts talent.
The exhibition features a broad range of expressive artforms that explore the contemporary themes that are of importance to young people today. The exhibition also includes a mentorship program focused on supporting their transition to emerging professional creative practices.
This exhibition has been a part of MAG&M’s program since 1995, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to connecting with secondary schools across the region and to supporting visual arts education.
Presented in partnership with the Theo Batten Trust and MAG&M Society, the program has provided Youth Art Awards to aspiring artists for 31 years. The Theo Batten Youth Art Award is offered to students pursuing studies in the visual arts or a related area (such as architecture, design, art education, music, performing arts, filmmaking, digital media etc) commencing in the year 2025. Theo Batten (1918-2003) was a well-respected local artist and journalist who studied at the National Art School and won a Walkley Award in 1972. He was a member of the Manly Art Gallery & Museum Society and a member of the former Peninsula Art Society, and wanted to leave behind an opportunity for young creative people to continue their studies in the visual arts.
Residue + Response
21 February – 6 April 2025
Residue + Response: 5th Tamworth Textile Triennial is a celebration of 50 years of the National Textile Collection promoting and sustaining the unique cultural heritage associated with both the history and technology of contemporary textile practice.
Curated by Dr Carol McGregor, Residue + Response features 25 artworks from across Australia which explore the theme of the connection between our histories and futures.
“Since the Tamworth National Fibre Textile Collection began in 1973, artists have interwoven and shared their lived experiences and negotiated stories through the materiality of textile practice. The 5th Tamworth Textile Triennial builds on this tradition with a future focus on the intangible essence of what it means to be human in the fabric of today’s society. It is an opportunity to celebrate Australian textiles practice, and for artists to create and explore the relationality and residues of change through a multiplicity of materials, methods and meanings.”
Residue + Response: 5th Tamworth Textile Triennial has been made possible through funding from the NSW Government, and the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia and Regional Arts Fund programs.
The exhibiting artists are;
Amy Hammond, Anne Graham, Blake Griffiths, Casselle Mountford, Dana Harris, Daphne Banyawarra, Fiona Gavino, Hannah Quinlivan, Joan Ross, Jumaadi, Kait James, Kate Harding, Kate Just, Kyra Mancktelow, Leanne Zilka + Jenny Underwood, Liz Williamson, Lucy Irvine, Maggie Hensel-Brown, Makeda Duong, Mandy Quadrio + Jan Oliver, Norton Fredericks, Paula do Prado + Tamara Burlando, Rachael Wellisch, Sophie Honess, Sybil Orr