2023 Artists' Book Award

3 March 2023 - 16 April 2023

An artist’s book is a medium of artistic expression that uses the form or function of a ‘book’ as inspiration.

Every two years the Northern Beaches Library Service holds an Artists’ Book Award attracting entries from around the world. Books are selected from the entries to form an exhibition. From the exhibited books, judges then select books to be acquired and added to the 80 plus artist books the Northern Beaches Library Service holds in their collection. This collection is unique to our community and public library service.

Express Yourself

3 Mar - 16 Apr

Now in its 29th year, Express Yourself is a dynamic annual exhibition of over 50 HSC visual art works selected from the 20 secondary schools across Sydney’s Northern Beaches.  The exhibition features a broad range of expressive artforms that explore the contemporary themes which are of importance to young people today. 

The artworks exhibited in Express Yourself demonstrate the diversity, spirit and artistic strength of our young local artists from the 2022 graduating cohort, as well as showcase the quality of teaching in Northern Beaches secondary schools. 

The Theo Batten Bequest Youth Art Award, Friends of MAG&M Youth Art Award, and the KALOF People’s Choice Award are presented as part of this exhibition.

MAG&M Art Wall: Dennis Golding

13 Feb 2023 - 16 April 2023

Dennis Golding takes over MAG&M’s façade for Sydney WorldPride 2023. As an artist, Golding pursues a critical view of social, political and cultural representations of Aboriginal Australian history and contemporary experiences. Often referencing science-fictional narratives through the visual motif of the cape, Golding explores relationships between figures of popular culture such as superheroes and Australian colonial histories.

In these photographs, the artist depicts a gaze of a gaze, provoking the viewer to understand the impacts of colonisation and disruptions to Country, people and culture. Golding challenges the categorical boundaries from Indigenous and non-Indigenous markings and of country and experiences that are often led by difference of race, culture, social class, and histories.

Blak Douglas: Inverted Commoners - Gayamay/Manly Cove 

21 Apr - 30 Jul

This exhibition of new work by Dhungatti artist Blak Douglas examines Gayamay/Manly Cove as a site of First Contact. Ideas around place and displacement are explored, dissecting the narrative of Manly Cove from an Indigenous perspective. For this solo project, the artist will show film, paintings and sculptures to find connections to place as a platform for discussion and debate. The MAG&M Art Wall facing Manly Cove was also transformed by Blak Douglas to create a 24/7 public art piece, further embedding the project in this place.

Cathe Stack: Connectivity - Country/Landscape

21 Apr - 4 Jun

The elemental landscape of Sydney’s Middle Harbour is the focal point through which artist Cathe Stack investigates the shaping of landscape; ranging from ecological deep time, and the application of language/s, to the multiplicity of ways eco-social thinking is transforming contemporary engagement to and with landscape.

In presenting her PhD body of work at this exhibition, the artist explores the ways connectivity to shared landscape is shaped by differing knowledge-based systems. The installation engages two- and three-dimensional form through innovative moulded timber and photographic applications, drawing and ceramics.

Jam Factory Icon Kunmanara Carroll: Ngaylu Nyanganyi Ngura Winki (I Can See All Those Places)

21 Apr - 4 Jun

JamFactory’s annual ICON exhibition celebrates the achievements of South Australia’s most influential visual artists working in craft-based media. Kunmanara (Pepai) Carroll (1950–2021) was a Luritja/Pintupi/Pitjantjatjara artist who worked at Ernabella Arts at Pukatja in the APY Lands.

Concerned with passing on cultural knowledge, his paternal homeland was an unwavering source of inspiration and the recurring subject within his oeuvre of painting and ceramic sculpture.

JamFactory ICON Kunmanara Carroll: Ngaylu Nyanganyi Ngura Winki (I Can See All Those Places) is a major solo exhibition which showcases a significant body of Carroll’s final ceramic works and paintings supported by a tapestry produced by the Australian Tapestry Workshop. 

JamFactory Icon 2021 Kunmanara Carroll: Ngaylu Nyanganyi Ngura Winki (I Can See All Those Places) is a JamFactory touring exhibition. JamFactory Icon 2021 Kunmanara Carroll: Ngaylu Nyanganyi Ngura Winki (I Can See All Those Places) has been assisted by the South Australian Government through the Department for Innovation and Skills and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, Contemporary Touring Initiative. Ernabella Arts and the Carroll family gratefully acknowledge support from the Government of South Australia through Arts SA and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council for the Arts and the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) program.

Ink in the Lines

9 Jun - 30 Jul

Behind every tattoo is a story. The photographic exhibition Ink in the Lines shares the stories of Australia’s military veterans through their tattoos. 

The exhibition explores the reasons why Australian service personnel get inked, and highlights the significance of tattoos in military history. 

An Australian War Memorial Touring Exhibition. 

Jumaadi: At the End (My Love) Nature Wins

1 Sep - 8 Oct

This is the first in a new series of exhibitions working with contemporary artists to help re-define our understanding of the diverse communities that call the Northern Beaches home. Indonesian born artist Jumaadi, recently moved his Sydney studio to Brookvale, the industrial, and increasingly cultural heartland of the Northern Beaches.

Jumaadi's practice explores themes such as love, nature, belonging, migration, and displacement while frequently drawing on his own experiences as an immigrant living in Australia. His art is deeply rooted in his Indonesian heritage, and often incorporates traditional motifs and symbols in the works – demonstrating the power of cross-cultural collaboration and the ability of art to transcend borders and boundaries.

Heather + Kate Dorrough: Lineage

1 Sep - 8 Oct

In conversations across time, the multi-disciplinary works of mother and daughter Heather and Kate Dorrough explore the nexus between the arts and crafts movements, female creative lineage, body and landscape, river and fertility, and environmental issues and activism. This dynamic contemporary exhibition encompasses fibre art, paintings, prints, ceramics, sculpture, and video.

MAG&M Art Wall: Warringah Printmakers Studio 25 years

1 Sep - 8 Oct

Warringah Printmakers, a community-access printmaking studio based in Manly Vale, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The studio is dedicated to promoting and advancing the art of printmaking and providing the artists of the Northern Beaches with the tools and expertise - creating a thriving community of artists who collaborate, exhibit, and share their knowledge and expertise with others.

Adam Cullen: Art is Pain Relief

13 Oct - 3 Dec

Retrospective exhibition of over 70 rarely seen paintings, works on paper, bronzes, ceramics, films and artist books, by Adam Cullen (1965-2012), one of the most important Australian artist of his generation. With works drawn from private collections and rarely seen for over a decade, this an opportunity to reflect upon Cullen’s extraordinary body of work and on his enduring legacy. 

Curated by Max Germanos from 3:33 Art Projects and developed with the support of the Adam Cullen Estate.

Lost in Palm Springs

8 Dec 2023 - 25 Feb 2024

Lost in Palm Springs is an interdisciplinary exhibition bringing together 14 creative minds – including internationally recognised artists, photographers and thinkers from America and Australia – who respond to, capture, or reimagine the magical qualities of the landscape and the celebrated mid-century modern architecture found in the desert city. Connections between Palm Springs and Australia are remarkably strong, particularly when viewed through the lens of the current renaissance of interest in modernist architecture. Place and home, desert atmospheres, landscapes (real and imagined), and Bauhaus sensibilities inform the works.

Collection 100: Gifted

8 Dec 2023 - 25 Feb 24

2024 marks 100 years of public collecting at MAG&M. To celebrate, we are presenting a series of three focus exhibitions throughout the year. Collection 100: Gifted is the first in the series. The exhibition will celebrate the philanthropists, artists, donors and member groups whose generosity and foresight has grown an impressive art collection that holds 100 years of stories about the cultural life of our region, city, state and nation.

Surface Effect: MAG&M Ceramics Collection Stories

8 Dec 2023 - 28 July 2024

For this exhibition in the Cove Gallery, works have been selected from the MAG&M collection in which the connections between painting, printmaking and ceramics are made visible. Danie Mellor and Noel McKenna have hand-moulded and glazed their clay pieces and created the drawing and paintings on display. Printmakers Belinda Fox and Elisabeth Cummings have collaborated with Neville French and Barbara Rommalis respectively, and Guan Wei has commissioned the large vase upon which he has applied his hand-drawn painting with glaze.