A vibrant place in the heart of the city, Canberra Museum and Gallery celebrates the region's social history and visual arts with dynamic exhibitions and unique community programs and events.
Housing a permanent collection, Reflecting Canberra, and a variety of local, national and international exhibitions, CMAG provides a refreshing insight to the integration of social history and the visual arts.
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Exhibitions
Fashioned Here
3 September 2011 - 21 January 2012
Gallery 5
This exhibition opens the wardrobe on CMAG's clothing collection. Labels such as Sylvia Parsons, Tracey Lord and Maggie Shepherd are on display with selected loans from Calthorpes' House and private collectors.
Soma:Sarcoma
24 September - 4 December
Gallery 4
Michelle Day's installation of light sculptures appears as a mysterious
mutation of organic and inorganic forms. The central sculpture, lit from
within, simultaniously suggests a bed, the body that lays upon it and
internal body parts.
One's Not Enough
16 July - 20 November
Open Collection
For the vast majority of motorcyclists, one bike to ride, enjoy and maintain
gives enough satisfaction. Peter and Ann Toet considered that motorcycling
was a hobby which they could enjoy together, and this developed into a
mutual desire to experience the different riding characteristics of bikes,
from a difficult to ride Veteran bike of the early nineteen hundreds, to the relaxed ride of a Sixties/Seventies Classic.
This passion has resulted in an extensive collection of some very rare,
unusual and interesting motorbikes.
The bikes on display in this exhibition are a small sample from more
than 60 pre 1975 motorbikes owned and ridden by Peter and Ann.
Click to view images from the One's Not Enough photoshoot by RLDI.
Imitation of life:
Memory and mimicry in
Canberra region art
25 June - 16 October 2011
Gallery 2/3
The art in Imitation Of Life plays with quotation and appropriation, mimicry
and replication. Including the work of twenty-seven contemporary artists
this feast of paintings, photographs, sculptures, jewellery, ceramics, textiles
and works on paper variously mines imagery from art history, illustrated encyclopaedias, nature magazines, science journals, newspapers, bodice rippers, children’s books, comics, toys, patterned lino and domestic tools
and appliances.
Within this exhibition there is nostalgia, homage and critique, irony, caricature and satire. Artists included in Imitation Of Life are: Jane Barney; Vivienne Binns; Rachel Bowak; Robert Boynes; Hamilton Darroch; Nicola Dickson; Janenne Eaton; Geoff Farquhar-Still; Kirsten Farrell; Patsy Hely; Martyn Jolly; Stephanie Jones; Lyndall Kennedy; Jay Kochel; Julian Laffan; Ann McMahon; Danie Mellor; Rose Montebello; Al Munro; Emily O’Brien; Louise Pinder; Julie Ryder; Erica Seccombe; Nick Stranks; Imants Tillers; Ruth Waller; and David Watt.
Click here to view slide show of a selection of works from the exhibition
To Shadow
2 July - 11 September
Gallery 4
To Shadow traces the shimmering and shifting forms observed by the
artist, Jan Hogan, on Gundaroo Common in the small country town
of Gundaroo, NSW.
The Cotter:
Watering The Garden City 1912 - 2011
26 March - 21 August 2011
Gallery 5
The exhibition will use artefacts and photographs to tell the story of dams on the Cotter River. The story will unfold the lives of the dam workers and the ongoing recreational use of the area for Canberrans.
Click to view the exhibition brouchure.
Click to view text panels from the exhibition.
Deluge
2 April - 19 June
Gallery 4
Artist Scott Chaseling uses four focal pieces surrounded by a shower of transparent glass chains, to explore the neutral space – the vacuum –
created at the moment when the tide begins to turn and the energy ebbs.
Deluge is an idea as much as an event. The notion of ‘deluge’ suggests an inundation of such enormity that it is out of control, from the literal definition of an overflowing body of water to all that is overwhelming in the personal and public spheres in which our lives are lived.
Canberra Gold
26 February 2011 – 26 July 2011
Open Collection
This exhibition celebrates some of the community groups who have made Canberra the city it is today. These groups have brought together people
in ways that enrich Canberra through their contribution to sport, culture
and community involvement.
Michael Le Grand: Sculpture
12 March 2011 - 12 June 2011
Gallery 2/3
This exhibition examines the sculpture of leading Australian
(and Canberra-based) artist Michael Le Grand, from the late 1970s to 2010. LeGrand’s oeuvre is characterised by his ongoing commitment to the rich traditions of formalist abstract sculpture in metal.
The exhibition ranges from intimate table pieces to monumental
and imposing outdoor works. It exemplifies the artist’s dedication
to his medium and showcases an exceptional and exciting talent.
Miss Piggy
13 November - 13 February 2011
Open collection
Elaine Carnell (1930 – 2008) started collecting pigs when her husband, a fan of the Muppets, bought her a ‘Miss Piggy’ soft toy. Her collection encompasses pigs of all shapes and sizes from figurines to flying pigs.
Altered States
23 October 2010 – 27 February 2011
Gallery 2/3
Explore the history of Canberra through those buildings which, for a variety
of reasons, have been lost, salvaged and repurposed during the last 100 years. While several of Canberra’s well known buildings have been demolished over the years, many others have been saved and some have been redesigned to fulfi l purposes their builders never dreamed of. Explore the history of some
of these buildings such as the old Canberra Brickworks, Albert Hall and
Glebe House.
Selections from the Nolan Collection
Illuminations
3 December 2010 – 13 March 2011
Gallery 5
An exhibition of paintings from Sidney Nolan’s ’Illuminations’ series examining the artist’s deep interest in the French poet, Arthur Rimbaud.
Message in a bottle
17 December - 20 March 2011
Gallery 4
Canberra artist Marily Cintra creates a site specific installation with
water samples and individual stories of people connected to the
Murrumbidgee River as part of an ongoing series responding to
CMAG’s glass fronted gallery on Civic Square.
CANBERRA MUSEUM and GALLERY COLLECTION
