Curated by JamFactory’s Margaret Handcock Davis (senior curator), the exhibition includes 29 artists, designers and architects from across Australia and brings together products, projects and works of art that reflect many of the current preoccupations with steel within contemporary art, design and architecture in Australia.

Steel is a medium rich in human history.

An alloy of iron and carbon, steel dates back to 4000 years ago and traces the technical and cultural development of multiple civilisations.

Today, steel is one of the most ubiquitous materials in the world. It inhabits the landscape of our bodies, our domestic spaces and our built environments.

A material that ranges from raw and functional to lustrous and decorative, steel blurs the boundary between utilitarian and precious.

The exhibitors in this exhibition represent a broad range of approaches to working with steel, and the range of work is extensive - from the fine, hand-crafted jewellery of Sabine Pagan, Sean O’Connell and Simon Cotrell to the high-tech architecture of CODA, and Misho and Associates.

STEEL: art design architecture allows us to think upon the links and similarities between the creative process, problem solving and design thinking undertaken in these various disciplines.

It reveals that many of the concerns that drive these innovative uses of steel engage the themes of identity, locality, materiality and sustainability.

STEEL will be open over the long weekend from 10am-5pm on Saturday and 11am-2pm on Sunday and Monday.

Also on exhibition at the gallery is Rachel Ellis: Sustaining Light, which features more than 40 of Ellis’ drawings and paintings, which have been borrowed from private and public collections from all over Australia.

For more information, visit the gallery website www.bathurstart.com.au or contact the gallery on 6333 6555.