Painting

Nick Sargent: A Scottish Land

Bold and charming celebration of the Scottish landscape

16 Sep 2011

With A Scottish Land, one-time set and costume designer and Edinburgh resident Nick Sargent returns to Oliver Chapman Architects in-house gallery space for the first time since their inaugural exhibition. Inspired by a photograph of a generic…

Art College Degree Shows

11 Jun 2009

Edinburgh College of Art Lizzy Stewart: Illustration Stewart’s work adorns record sleeves, editorial pages, zines and books. Her vivid prints, including ‘Giant Bear in a Tiny Village’ (pictured), will be on display alongside illustrations for Dee…

Will Barras and Rue Five: Crystal is the New Wolf

28 May 2009

Tucked away near the Woodside Social, Recoat’s bizarrely titled two-man show presents an intriguing twist on street art. Featuring work by London-based designer and illustrator Will Barras and Stirling’s Rue Five, the exhibition includes a large-scale…

Bob Dylan’s Art

22 Jan 2009

‘My father, who was plain speaking and straight talking had said, “Isn’t an artist a fellow who paints?” when told by one of my teachers that his son had the nature of an artist. It seemed I’d always been chasing after something, anything that moved – a…

Peter Pretsell

16 Oct 2008

PRINTS AND PAINTINGS There’s a light-hearted sense of joy and goodwill in these two parallel exhibitions celebrating the four-decade output of the late Peter Pretsell, who was both student and lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art and, appropriately…

Sarah Wakeford: Light, Air and Space

2 Oct 2008

PAINTING ‘I see myself as a decorative artist,’ says Sarah Wakeford, ‘rather than one who wants to make a big political statement or anything like that. I paint things which I find attractive.’ It seems somewhat ironic that this is Wakeford’s view…

Andrew Grassie: Painting as Document

7 Aug 2008

This survey exhibition of recent and new work by Andrew Grassie, his first major solo show in Scotland, exhibits a selection of the artist’s paintings from the past ten years. When first viewed together, this output appears terribly uniform. The…

Jim Dick: Fornixxation

3 Jul 2008

This exhibition presents a series of compelling paintings by Glasgow School of Art graduate Jim Dick on the theme of subconscious memories, desires and symbolic associations. The title is taken from a number of strands related to the exhibition and its…

James Ryan: Parallax

19 Jun 2008

PAINTING Corn Exchange Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu 17 Jul Young painter James Ryan was the recipient of the Conran Foundation Award when he graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2007, yet his work falls between the pillar of artistic intent and…

Louise Bourgeois: Nature Study

5 Jun 2008

PAINTING, SCULPTURE Inverleith House, Edinburgh, until Sun 6 Jul It’s a weekday lunchtime in spring and the Royal Botanic Garden is teeming with new life. Mothers push buggies, primary school children dig into the earth and the plants are a riot of…

Iain Hetherington: Diversified Cultural Workers

5 Jun 2008

PAINTING Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 28 Jun Using a combination of abstract and realist painting techniques, Iain Hetherington’s new exhibition presents an intriguing twist on the idea of the painted portrait. These new works build on themes…

Art School Degree Shows

22 May 2008

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Ragnar Jonasson Painter Originally from Iceland, Ragnar Jonasson paints, but not using brushes or canvas. ‘I’m pouring paint,’ he explains, ‘from saucepans. I pour it onto plastic, then peel it off, so there’s nothing…

Janice McNab

22 May 2008

PAINTING Doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sat 12 Jul In recent years the work of Aberfeldy-born, Amsterdam-based painter Janice McNab has lent itself towards a series she calls her ‘Chocolate Box Paintings’. While that term has developed from…

Dislocation

22 May 2008

The current exhibition at Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange Gallery pairs established Edinburgh-based artist Anna Constantinou with sculptor Thomas Winstanley, who graduated from the RCA in London last year. The two bodies of work relate to each other in the…

Jonathan Monk

8 May 2008

INSTALLATION, SCULPTURE, PAINTING Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 18 May ‘Something No Less Important Than Nothing’ and ‘Nothing No Less Important Than Something’ are the first Scottish shows by Jonathan Monk in a decade, though actually it’s the same…

Alasdair Gray

24 Apr 2008

Sometimes it’s more fun to ignore the explanatory gallery text and have a good look at the work. This seems an obvious enough way of dealing with art objects, but usually makes for lazy viewing and reviewing on the part of the critic. But it is…

Kalup Linzy

24 Apr 2008

FILM, PERFORMANCE AND PAINTING Washington Garcia, Glasgow, until Sun 27 Apr New-York based Kalup Linzy is more Vaginal Davis than a ‘Paris is Burning’ starlet, more Judy la Bruce (Bruce’s alter-ego) than Hedwig. But it cannot be denied that all of…

Maternity: Images of Motherhood

24 Apr 2008

PAINTING, PRINT, SCULPTURE AND PHOTOGRAPHY Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 22 Jun This exhibition takes us down the well-trodden path of ‘maternity in art’ and, for the most part, succeeds in eliciting ideas beyond the…

Ernst Caramelle

24 Apr 2008

PAINTING AND MIXED MEDIA Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 17 May Constructed from arrangements of geometric shapes, Caramelle’s paintings exhibit a judicious use of colour, which he uses to manipulate the illusion of perspective and space. While these…

Enrico David: Ultra Paste

10 Apr 2008

INSTALLATION, SCULPTURE AND PAINTINGS Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 10 May It’s hard to believe the ejaculatory inference of the title of this exhibition is unintended, because the whole purpose of ‘Ultra Paste’ (the show’s key work) seems…

From Sickert to Gertler: Modern British Art from Boxted House

10 Apr 2008

PAINTING/WORKS ON PAPER NGMA, Edinburgh, until Sun 22 Jun This exhibition celebrates the lives of Bobby and Natalie Bevan, whose Essex home Boxted House contained numerous works by prominent 20th century modernists. It also showcases the work of…

David Sillars

10 Apr 2008

Exploring routes through pure painting, abstraction and mainstream modernism, Glasgow-based artist Sillars evokes a quasi-mystical milieu within paintings whose subjects range from Tibetan icons to distorted post-urban landscapes. Glasgow…

Enrico David

27 Mar 2008

Italian-born, London-based artist Enrico David showed the exhibition Ultra Paste in late 2007 at London’s ICA, where it received significant critical praise. In fact, since 2001 his reputation has grown so considerably he is now regarded as one of the…

Interview - David Sillars

27 Mar 2008

Alexander Kennedy Can you tell us briefly about your new work? David Sillars Well it’s an evolving show; the pictures and the installation will be changing. Most of the pieces just now are about that continuing enquiry into our experience of…

James Green: You Are Still Here

27 Mar 2008

PAINTING AND MIXED MEDIA Corn Exchange Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu 10 Apr John Merrick, otherwise known as ‘The Elephant Man’, is the unusual starting point for Royal College of Art graduate James Green’s first solo exhibition in Scotland. What from…

Craig Mulholland

28 Feb 2008

In an exhibition that spans three venues, and will morph into an even larger installation in Bristol later this year, Craig Mulholland’s Grandes et Petites Machines, which comprises sculptures, constructed ‘paintings’ and films, fills the Mackintosh…

Nick Evans and Tony Swain

28 Feb 2008

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE Inverleith House, Edinburgh, until Sun 20 Apr Two Glasgow-based artists have been brought together and seemingly linked by their aptitude for and interest in the process of making. It gives this exhibition an appealing rawness…

Lotte Gertz

28 Feb 2008

PRINTING, DRAWING AND PAINTING Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 1 Mar It can be difficult to form a strong opinion about work that comes across as insubstantial and ‘bitty’. This may seem an obvious thing to say about the collages on show by Lotte Gertz…

Nick Evans and Tony Swain

14 Feb 2008

It seems Paul Nesbit can do no wrong at Inverleith House in the Botanic Gardens. The curator has a back catalogue of excellent exhibitions under his belt, having shown work by some of the most respected national and international artists. Following a…

Live Undead

14 Feb 2008

PAINTING Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Feb This ambitious show, curated by Michael Hill Johnston, brings together a century of paintings on the subject of portraiture from both Scottish and international artists. Live Undead boasts…

Collage City

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, PRINTMAKING, PHOTOGRAPHY Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 24 Feb This latest offering from the Dean Gallery has drawn a number of key works out from the Gallery of Modern Art’s permanent collection to create an unassuming and…

Alan Michael: Touch Void

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 19 Jan–Sat 1 Mar Graduating from Glasgow School of Art’s MFA course in 1998, 40-year-old painter Alan Michael, who remains based in the city, has built a steady reputation, with last year’s solo shows…

Spencer Sweeney

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Feb New York-based painter Spencer Sweeney’s art seems to be suffering from a personality crisis, with stylistic approaches, materials and assumed personas thrown into a big American Magimix…

Joan Eardley

4 Jan 2008

PAINTING Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, until Sun 13 Jan The peculiar psychology which leads many notable artists’ works to only truly be appreciated after they have died is hard to explain, with the premature passing of an artist lending an…

Interview - Carol Rhodes

29 Nov 2007

Carol Rhodes, known for her landscapes painted from a vertiginous aerial perspective, talks to Alexander Kennedy about her new exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Alexander Kennedy Can you share some of the main themes and…

Scott Myles - Askit

20 Sep 2007

SCULPTURE AND PAINTING It would be wrong to immediately dismiss the new work on show by Scott Myles at the Modern Institute at first glance, as your initial aesthetic reaction will be incorrect. It may seem overly dramatic to say that the painted…

Richard Strachan

20 Sep 2007

PAINTING Amber Roome, Edinburgh, until Thu 4 Oct As verdigris slices through neon lime, which in turn is edged with bright jade, Richard Strachan’s pragmatically titled ‘Green/Yellow’, becomes a crystalline image that seems to take you deep into the…

Michael Craik: Razed to the Ground

16 Aug 2007

There can be an arresting intimacy in small paintings. The artist’s relationship becomes that much closer and more private, the intentions more modest. Certainly this seems to be part of the appeal of Michael Craik’s most recent works, all of which are…