MAG&M | Beyond the Box

Friday 19 September 2025, 10:00 am - Sunday 30 November 2025, 05:00 pm

Corrugated cardboard, as an art-making material, only began appearing around the time of Pablo Picasso’s influential sculpture 'Still Life with Guitar' (1913). Since then, the humble cardboard box has been used in a plethora of different ways including as a substrate for painting on (by artists such as Basquiat), as a material that rejects established art-hierarchies (by movements such as Arte Povera), and as a material that epitomises environmental concerns around the re-use of materials.

Traditionally, the cardboard box is thought of as a vessel or container, which is associated with the packaging of commercial goods, and their distribution in the age of global markets. What happens when the cardboard box becomes a vessel for ideas or concepts?

In this exhibition, MAG&M seeks to explore ways in which Australian artists in the 21st century leverage the materiality of such a modest item and incorporate it into their artworks as a way of engaging in the concepts which concern them.

The participating artists are:
Gabrielle Bates, Patrizia Biondi, Tracey Clement, Scott Duncan, David Manley, Sean Rafferty.

Manly Art Gallery & Museum | 1a West Esplanade, Manly NSW 2095

https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/arts-and-culture/manly-art-gallery-museum/exhibitions/exhibition-catalogues-resources/beyond-the-box