Your visit to our galleries

24 May 2021 - 8 August 2021
Three new exhibitions across our Upper, Tall and Sunken Galleries

Entrance to the exhibitions is free, although donations are appreciated at this difficult time.

Pre-booking your ticket to our exhibitions is now essential. Click here to book your visit or scroll to read more on the booking process.

Upper Gallery (Fourth Floor)
Ambera Wellmann: UnTurning

UnTurning is the first exhibition in the United Kingdom by Canadian-born and New York-based painter Ambera Wellmann.

Wellmann’s paintings negotiate the devastation of the present, one in which the cultural logic of heteronormativity and capitalism are naturalized in the human psyche. Traversing distinctions between human and animal, and figure and ground, Wellmann visualizes an illogical state where bodies transmute. Populated with elusive figures and motifs manifesting in uncanny physical forms, Wellmann’s works embody processes of erasure and revision, engaging with the potential of chance, vulnerability, and failure. 

Tall Gallery (Third Floor)
Maya Balcioglu

The first institutional exhibition by artist Maya Balcioglu, consisting of large scale works on paper, latex and fabric completed over a 15-year period.

Balcioglu makes work which is deliberative, intended for consideration or discussion, a process which she sees as democratic, to imply a moral act, inviting others in, to cognize the world through others, and to consider values which are outside of the self.

Balcioglu’s works are neither figurative nor abstract but in an intermediary condition. For Balcioglu experiment and transgression are necessary; she does not cultivate the image. She works on a flat surface using ink and other liquid materials and does not step back while working, only seeing what is in front of her and never the entire picture plane as composition.

 Her mark-making hovers around formlessness, reminiscent of stains left from bodily fluids and stigmata like appearances located in an in-between state of consciousness and slumber.

“I want less control, more abandonment of conventions and historical burdens. In the image I am looking for ways of exiting through which I might get somewhere. I don't plan but have ideas, visions and intuitions about what I'm going to do”.

Sunken Gallery (Ground Floor)
Jaap Pieters: The Eye of Amsterdam
Dutch artist Jaap Pieters is a stalwart specialist of Super 8mm filmmaking. He has created dozens of films on the small-gauge “amateur” medium over the course of four decades.

Dutch artist Jaap Pieters is a stalwart specialist of Super 8mm filmmaking. He has created dozens of films on the small-gauge “amateur” medium over the course of four decades. Confining himself to the duration of a 3-minute Super 8 reel, he works with minimal equipment and manipulation.

Pieters began shooting films in Super 8 in 1985. His work concentrates on urban subjects – trams, crossroads, city dwellers and drifters – to which Pieters directs his unique gaze to capture their everyday existence. His films are essentially about seeing, observing and isolating his subjects in a way which requires the viewer to look beyond the superficial or obvious. Pieters’ mastery of his subject and medium directs us to actively pay attention to the people involved, recognising the innate humanity played out on the street.

“I have always felt great solidarity with people who can’t make it in life in this structure. In this society. The people I film have fallen between two stools. Those are the people most striking to me. I am also a fringe figure. I know”.

Jaap’s films will be shown on three showreels rotating throughout the duration of the exhibition. Each showreel will be introduced by A Fragmented Encounter with Jaap Pieters, a film profile of the artist assembled from 5 documentary portraits (2006-2018) made to recognise Jaap becoming the 2020 Helen Hill Award recipient.

Film duration: 55mins

Booking your gallery visit

Click the Book Now button on the exhibition page to begin the booking process, and select the date and time you wish to visit these exhibitions. These are listed as 30 min slots, and you can arrive at the MAC anytime within that 30min time slot. Next, tell us how many will be attending – our exhibitions are free to visit, but you can choose to add a donation to your booking. At this difficult time, we are more grateful than ever for those who give financially towards our work – your donations truly make a difference.

To complete your booking, we’ll ask you for some personal details including a contact telephone number for Track and Trace purposes. Once your booking is confirmed, we will send you a confirmation email, and the day before your visit, we’ll also send an email with some helpful information for your visit.

On the day of your visit

We have introduced a one-way system at the MAC, as part of our efforts to keep you safe. On arrival, please enter via the door on Exchange Street West. You will be met by a member of staff, or you may have to queue for a few moments.

Please show your e-ticket or print at home ticket, and our staff will check you in and share some further information with you about your visit.
For more information to help prepare you for a visit to the MAC, check out our Keeping You Safe page. There you’ll find a customer journey video, showing you how your visit might look, and answers to our frequently asked questions.