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Manly Art Gallery and Museum

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Manly Art Gallery and Museum

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01/09/2026

MAG&M Collection Highlight: Col Levy

Legendary Australian ceramicist Col Levy passed away in July this year. He was a significant figure in Australian studio pottery, renowned for his mastery of wood firing and his lifelong engagement with Japanese ceramic traditions.

His work, Jug, 1978 from the MAG&M Collection, is currently on display in our exhibition Chronos: Australian ceramics from 1933, on display until March 2027.

The work stands as a tribute to Levy’s extraordinary command of clay, fire and form, and to his enduring contribution to Australian ceramics.

Vale Col Levy.

Col Levy (1933–2026)
Jug, 1978
Bizenware, high-fired stoneware
Gift of the Committee, 1978 (C0038)

31/08/2026

THE AFTERLIFE OF WASTE ♻️🗑️

What happens to the things we discard?

Rob Coates paints 'Wakehurst Parkway, Dawn Overlay' on building waste, William Versace’s 'Lego Block Geode' recasts consumer debris as future geology, and Rebecca Whittemore’s 'What the Kitchen Forgets, Cauliflower Leaf' transforms a food scrap into an object of scrutiny.

🗳️ Visit the Environmental Art & Design Prize at MAG&M, from 7 August to 20 September 2026, and vote for your favourite work in the People’s Choice Award.

📍Meet the Artists & Designers from the 2026 Environmental Art & Design Prize.
🗓Saturday 5 September, 2-3pm at Manly Art Gallery & Museum

📸Image details:
Rebecca Whittemore, 'What the Kitchen Forgets, Cauliflower Leaf', scanogram, giclee print on Ilford Smooth Pearl Paper, edition 1/5, 74x74xcm

William Versace, 'Lego Block Geode', resin, unique pewter base, Ghost Form: Lego, bottle caps, AAA batteries, screwdriver, Hot Wheels car, COVID test, soy sauce bottle, pump dispenser, power plug, bottles, lids, blister packs, pen, hose, syringe, microchip, 96x18x13cm

Rob Coates, 'Wakehurst Parkway, Dawn Overlay,' furniture grade birch plywood, building waste/offcut oil paint, spray paint, acrylic and resin, 86x39cm

28/08/2026

IMAGINING A BETTER WORLD 🌳🏙️

What could the future look like if people lived more gently with nature?

Isabella Niu’s 'The Guardian Below' imagines a city carried by a giant chameleon. Neil Sharat’s 'Ecotopia' presents a playful world of bird-powered transport, underground homes and flood-resistant architecture, while Shepard Harris’ 'You know what would look really nice here?' reverses urban development by imagining a tree chopping down a car park.

Visit Curl Curl Creative Space from 7 August to 20 September 2026 and vote for your favourite work in the People’s Choice Award. 🗳️

📸Image details:
Shepard Harris, 'You know what would look really nice here?', photography paper, digital colour photography and photoshop collage, 48x72cm

Neil Sharat, 'Ecotopia', watercolour, colour pencil, markers, pen, 42x30cm

Isabella Niu, 'The Guardian Below', watercolour on paper, 37x52cm

26/08/2026

Book now for our upcoming one-day masterclass with artist Michael Muir.

Learn about the elements of colour, form and composition with Muir, who is exhibiting at MAG&M from 25 September - 29 November 2026 with The Shape of Colour.

🎨Masterclass Series 2026: Colour and Composition with Michael Muir
Monday 12 October, 10am – 3pm
Manly Art Gallery & Museum
📍Link in bio

Image details:
Michael Muir, Portrait by Felicity Jenkins, 2026. Courtesy the artist

Michael Muir, Where its been, 2023, oil on linen, 137 x 122cm. Courtesy the artist & Jan Murphy Gallery Brisbane

25/08/2026

BUILDING DIFFERENTLY 🏠🌿

Can the built environment carry history while supporting a more sustainable future?

Tom Butterworth’s '1890' transforms sandstone salvaged from a nineteenth-century Sydney terrace into a contemporary table. Jamileh Jahangiri’s 'The Kimbriki House of Salvage' proposes a regenerative architecture made from Northern Beaches waste streams, while Katie Stafford’s 'Breathe Block' turns reclaimed floorboards into a flexible interior building system.

🗳️ Visit the Environmental Art & Design Prize at MAG&M, from 7 August to 20 September 2026, and vote for your favourite work in the People’s Choice Award.

📸Image details:
Jamileh Jahangiri, 'The Kimbriki House of Salvage: A regenerative architecture prototype developed from Northern Beaches waste streams', speculative architectural proposal incorporating salvaged timber, off-cut stone, recovered flooring systems, demolished construction panels, crushed green waste aggregates, found objects, material experiments, drawing, collage and spatial prototyping. The project investigates circular construction and new material assemblies developed from Northern Beaches waste and salvage streams, 200x200x200cm

Tom Butterworth, '1890', Australian Hawkesbury sandstone, stainless steel, 10mm toughened glass, 43.5x120x60cm

Katie Stafford, 'Breathe Block', reclaimed spotted gum tongue-and-groove floorboards, spotted gum oil finish, 100x140x10cm

24/08/2026

Coming next to MAG&M: A different story of Manly in ‘Girly in Manly’.

Bringing together works by Kate Bohunnis, Anne Ferran, Maddison Gibbs and Ebony Russell, ‘Girly in Manly’ explores femininity through ideas of inheritance, care, creativity and connection to place.

The exhibition takes its starting point from the colonial naming of ‘Manly’. In 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip described the Aboriginal men he observed at Manly Cove as displaying “confidence and manly behaviour” - and the name endured.

But what stories have been overlooked? ‘Girly in Manly’ turns our attention to the women whose labour, knowledge and cultural authority have sustained life on Country, and asks us to consider how ideas of gender shape what is valued, remembered and recognised as powerful.

💟Girly in Manly
🗓25 September – 29 November 2026
📍MAG&M
🔖Free entry

art

📸Image details:
Ebony Russell, Hearts Crown, 2026, Porcelain, stain, glaze and gold lustre, 19 x 22 x 22cm.

Maddison Gibbs, Manly Matriarch 1, 2026, print on cotton rag, 118.9 x 84.1cm

Anne Ferran, ‘White Against Red 6’, 2018, digital print on canvas, 250 x 150cm

Kate Bohunnis, Body as machine, 2026, installation detail 1. Photo by Luca Calderó

23/08/2026

Take a seat! The innovative work of the 2026 Environmental Art & Design Prize finalists got us thinking about this hand-crafted bench, sitting in MAG&M’s Lady Askin Ceramics Gallery.

It was created in 2025 by local furniture designer and teacher Jack Stannard. It is made from recycled Blackbutt with a natural hardwax oil finish.

Next time you visit MAG&M, take a closer look, and a seat.

📸Image credits:
1. Jack Stannard with bench

2. Ceramics top - bottom, L-R: Ebony Russell (b.1980), "Piped Dream (Pink Ombre Pony)", 2018; Sassy Park (b.1964) "Sailor Pete's Crew, No. 14 & 18", 2021; Christopher James (b.1964), "Bowl (Wild Places Series)", 2021; Mechelle Bounpraseuth (b.1985) "Rooster Plate with Haw Haw, Kopiko and White Rabbit Candy," 2023; Kate Dorrough (b.1964) "River Icon", 2023; Guan Wei (b.1957), "Blue like Sky 1", 2014; Simone Fraser (b.1951), "Impression Series #5", 2014; Billy Bain (b.1992), "Dawn (March Past series)", 2022.

3. Bench detail with ceramics in background, top-bottom, L-R: Jenny Orchard (b.1951), Totem, 1986; Doug Alexander (1945-1981), Decanter, c1980, Wanda Garnsey (1914-2011), Teapot, c1891; Christopher James (b.1964), Europa, 1991; Anders Ousback (1951-2004), Teabowl, 2003; Anders Ousback (1951-2004), Bowl, 2000; Noel McKenna, Horse, 1997; Steve Harrison (b.1952), The military industrial complex rules OK!, 1995; Irene Entata,(1946-2014), Mission Days – Baptism, 2007; Marea Gazzard (1928-2013), Hania IV, 2005.

21/08/2026

LIVING WITH A CHANGING CLIMATE 🔥🌏

How do we represent the lived experience of climate change?

Tamara Dean’s 'The Hose Won’t Reach' reflects the fear and uncertainty of an Australian summer shaped by fire and drought. Jelena Sinik and Carl Stewart’s '42°C' considers the deadly effects of extreme heat on flying foxes, while Leanne Thompson’s 'Breathe In, Hold' records the tension of a drying landscape.

How can art help us respond to a changing climate? Join the conversation at MAG&M from 7 August to 20 September 2026. 💬

📸Image details:

Jelena Sinik & Carl Stewart, '42°C', The material process requires the development of animated frames, printed as negatives/positives on recycled transparencies, for placement on each individual leaf in the chlorophyll printing process. Harnessing the sun's UV, the leaves are burnt outside over several hours. They are then photographed and sequenced through the process of stop-motion animation.

Leanne Thompson, 'Breathe In, Hold', cyanotype, toned with foraged botanicals, foraged plant and flower non-lightfast dyes, earth pigment, foraged grass, seed and plant fibre, charcoal, wax - on multiples of rice and rag paper, 200x150cm

Tamara Dean, 'The Hose Won't Reach', oil on board, 70x90cm

19/08/2026

Meet this month's Local Creative: artist Alex Thorby.

Alex Thorby is a painter and finalist in the 2026 Environmental Art & Design Prize, with her work "Incognizant 10". She describes her work, practice and environmental concerns in this month's Local Creatives Interview, sharing:

"Living in a coastal environment is an intimate collision with the pervasiveness of microplastic....Globally it’s overwhelming, and in my own small way, I felt I needed to use my creative practice to give a visual voice to these ecological concerns. I started to incorporate colours of found plastic collected from the beach, into my painting grounds. Letting glimpses of bright colour sneak through, just like the way microplastic does in the landscape.

At the same time, we revel in our body’s elemental hedonism to the sea and sun, my figures took on the philosophies of Rodin and Aristotle, where ‘the body reflects the state of the mind and soul’, becoming hunched and unstable, shouldering the burden of climate change.”

Alex Thorby’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of NSW, Margaret Olley Trust, State Library, NSW, New England Regional Gallery, Armidale University, Inverell Art Gallery, Waverley Council and private collections.

📖Read more online to find out what the Prize means to her and why opportunities like this are so important in supporting local artists and the wider community.

Image details:
Alex Thorby, courtesy of photographer, Jenni Carter
Alex Thorby, "Incognizant10", 2026
Alex Thorby, "Wave Study, View across to Mona Vale Beach with fog", 2022

.northernbeaches

18/08/2026

Interested in what a symbiotic future may look like?

Join 3 of Australia’s leading creative and environmental thinkers, Andy Marks, Anne Zahalka and Marnie Ogg, for a lively discussion exploring how we can move beyond ideas of human impact and embrace living in harmony with nature.

Moderated by Dr Jonathan Webb, Science Editor at ABC Radio National, this free event is presented as part of the 2026 Environmental Art & Design Prize.

📌CEAD Panel 2026: Imagining our Symbiotic Future
📍Manly Art Gallery & Museum
🗓Thu 10 Sep, 5.30 – 7.30pm

Link to book in bio. Event includes refreshments.

Address

West Esplanade
Manly, NSW
2095

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Website

https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/arts-and-culture/manly-art-gallery-museum

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