The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) will present “Permanent Drafts,” a major exhibition of over 40 recent works by Canadian artist Erin Shirreff, opening May 30. The show spans collage, photography, sculpture, and video, including site-specific installations and a new museum acquisition, “Paper sculpture” (2024). Shirreff, who began as a sculptor, uses photography to explore the gap between 2D representation and 3D objects, creating works that challenge how viewers perceive images and forms. Key pieces include the cyanotype collage “Inside times” (2020) and the sheet-metal installation “Drop” (2025).
The exhibition matters because it is Shirreff’s most comprehensive show in a decade and continues MAM’s focus on expanding the definition of photography beyond traditional prints. At a time when photographs are increasingly distrusted as conveyors of truth, Shirreff’s work—dwelling between image and object—offers a timely meditation on representation. The show also reinforces the museum’s curatorial commitment to medium-crossing practices, following a recent Robert Longo exhibition with similar conceptual themes.