Cage Match Project (CMP) gallery lives in an industrial caged-trailer. Measured at 20x8x7 feet, this weathered and rusted container resides in a gravel parking lot in Austin, TX where it is under constant exposure to the elements and 24-hour public viewership. By fully embracing the caged-trailer as both literal and conceptual context, Cage Match Project purposefully stages a narrative of the artist-at-odds, with either history, space, or a work of art itself.
Since 2017, through an open call process, with several exhibitions per year, CMP has hosted 25 Rounds of physical installations, 2 seasons of podcasts, 12 workshops all of which are created and led by the community and invited artists and collectives. In total, CMP has remained open and accessible for 3200+ days of public exhibits. Aside from exhibition openings, gallery hours, and public programming, CMP coordinates networking opportunities between emerging artists and Austin’s art community. CMP maintains a platform through in-person and digital events, highlighting and showcasing each artist’s practice to a national and international audience. The very nature of CMP is intersectional not as a theoretical term but as an everyday practice and lived experience.
In 2025, Manik Raj Nakra accepted the role of director and curator of CMP.
Cage Match Project is a fiscally sponsored project of The Museum of Human Achievement (MoHA)
This project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.
Staff:
Manik Raj Nakra | Director and Curator
Diar Enayatpour | Assistant Curator