Visual art and Exhibition

Artist Matthew Darbyshire set for new Tramway show

London artists draws inspiration from Charles Rennie Mackintosh

6 Jan 2012

The distinctive art nouveau style of artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh has become synonymous with Glasgow. Lauded for his elegant design of the art school, and the organic allure of his decorative works, his influence now reaches well beyond his artistic…

Warm up this winter with free art in Edinburgh

4 Jan 2012

Now the party season is over and the festivities long gone, you and your wallet could probably do with a little TLC. Luckily the National Galleries of Scotland have a full programme of free exhibitions and events during January, to help nourish the mind…

Interview: Kirsty Whiten

Breeder Badlands show at Edinburgh Printmakers

19 Dec 2011

What made you want to be an artist? The uniform. And the pension plan. Your new solo show, Breeder Badlands, explores the complexities of the familial unit. What was the original inspiration for the exhibition? This work is really personal – friends and…

Design and Democracy exhibition - Free Family Weekend to mark St Andrew's Day

Free events include building your own rocket and radio-controlled car

16 Nov 2011

Design affects the lives of all of us. Whether it’s an intuitive new phone, a car that tells us we’ve left the lights on, or the Kindle doing something nobody expected and actually improving on the design of a book, who of us have not had our lives…

Thea Djordjadze - Lost Promise in a Room

A considered display of sculpture and objects in effective, minimalist setting

15 Nov 2011

Strange objects roughly sculpted in plaster, propped up against walls, placed in corners and laid out in unusual places, are contrasted against minimalist lines of steel and smooth mirrored cubes. A lump of chicken wire is securely contained in a…

Transmission Gallery Group Show

Sam Derounian, Graham Kelly and Conor Kelly shine in local artist showcase

15 Nov 2011

A commendable group show brings together new work by nine Glasgow-based artists at the Transmission Gallery. Without a didactic theme to tie the exhibition together the viewer is free to contemplate works individually and to make subtle links with…

Glasgay!: Re-Invention

Exhibition and workshop aimed at gay and trans comic fans

19 Sep 2011

The idea of gay culture in comics is nothing new, with handfuls of uptight academics frantically pointing out the homoerotic sub-tones of Batman and Robin’s cartoon exploits since the 1950s. The foundations of X-Men arguably lie in the civil rights…

Stephen Sutcliffe: Runaway, Success

Biography-obsessed artist hides behind his heroes

11 Aug 2011

It’s been a while since Yorkshire-born Glasgow resident Sutcliffe has trotted out his curious wares in Scotland, and it’s not difficult to see why. His work is moody and peppered with arch cultural references to complex arty prima donnas Joe Orton…

Chris Drury - Land, Water and Language

A man, his boat and some nice scenery

11 Aug 2011

Life’s a journey not a destination and other such homilies. God preserve us from the travelogue artists. Chris Drury is one such artist. This exhibition, which was initially created for Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre in North Uist, takes its…

Norman McBeath & Robert Crawford: Body Bags / Simonides

Mournful collaboration between photographer and poet

11 Aug 2011

Scots translations of epitaphs by the ancient Greek poet Simonides, coupled with black and white photographs, adorn the high-rising walls of two lofty Edinburgh College of Art studios. Joined by tall vases of white lilies, classical casts from the…

Urs Fischer and Georg Herold

Sculpture exhibiition examining the art-making process

3 Aug 2011

On a red divan a reclining nude has settled into a classical pose. She appears completely still, her milk white skin wraps serenely around her hyper-real body, her glassy blue eyes complete the life like sculpture. Upon closer inspection the rise and…

Hayashi Takeshi: Haku-u (White Rain)

Impressive hand-carved sculptures

3 Aug 2011

Once upon a time, Japanese artist Hayashi Takeshi looked out over a paddy field in the rain, the texture of the water’s surface as each inverted wet plop rose and fell clearly ingraining itself on his memory. With the primary and titular work on display…

The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein

Compendium of works inspired by the Renaissance innovator

3 Aug 2011

There’s something of an inky-fingered Dürer overload in the ‘burgh just now. Following on from Dürer’s Fame over at the National Galleries, this 16th century compendium of more than 100 works uses his output as a springboard for the burgeoning of…

Gina Glover – Playgrounds of War

Evocative photography exhibition concerning militarized landscapes

3 Aug 2011

A small child kitted out in wellies and a windbreaker stands with her hands covering her ears between large truck tracks in a desolate, barren, concrete landscape. This black and white photograph forms part of a 1980s series that shows the artist’s…

Tony Cragg

Stunning showcase of sculptor’s poetic, monolithic output

3 Aug 2011

From Scouse lab technician to director of Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Cragg’s prolific artistic journey has been one of inspiration and rejection, absorption and a will to move beyond. While the works of Max Ernst, Richard Long, Joseph Beuys and Henry…

Dürer’s Fame

Tribute to the German woodcut and engravings master Albrecht Durer

21 Jul 2011

German handball star Pascal Hens gazes out from a black-and-white poster, his torso naked, gaze serious, his pose one of self-deification. This is enhanced further by a tattoo on his stomach of two disembodied hands clasped together as if in prayer.

Gravity's Rainbow

Pynchon-inspired group show explores different representations of colour

21 Jul 2011

The acid house smiley face on the sunny yellow ball of Peter Liversidge’s shelf-load of single-hued detritus speaks volumes about this colour-focused group show of eight artists that takes its title from Thomas Pynchon’s baroque noir. It begins with a…

Breaking the Renaissance Code

Exhibition exploring emblems, taking place at The Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow, until Tue 4 Oct

21 Jul 2011

Depending on whether you are a critic or an avid fan of the bestselling Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown both heralded and slew the art of emblematic thinking. This small yet punchy exhibition puts examples of Dürer, Rembrandt and Holbein’s use of symbolic…

Alistair Frost & Gerda Scheepers

Group show at Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 6 Aug

21 Jul 2011

With works that deal with painting as their surface connection, but later reveal a linguistic undercurrent, the latest show at Mary Mary is an exploration of symbols and signs. Gerda Scheeper’s minimal figurative paintings focus on both the sensual and…

World Press Photo 2011 in Edinburgh - Jodi Bieber interview

Photo of mutilated young Afghan woman a symbol of tormented times

8 Jul 2011

Bibi Aisha was 18 when the Taliban came calling for her just before midnight. Forced into a mountain clearing in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, she was put on trial and convicted by a local commander. Her crime: fleeing from a violent husband…

Nina Rhode: Friendly Fire / Cara Tolmie: Read thou Art And Read Thou Shalt Remain

Two art films from a Berliner and a Glasweigan

14 Jun 2011

If the world is a circle without a beginning and nobody knows where it really ends (‘laa-la-laaa-la’), as a zenned-out Hal David once wrote to a Burt Bacharach choon, then both Nina Rhode and Cara Tolmie’s worlds seem to be on a permanent loop in these…

Cryptic Nights: Inhabitants

A one-off fusion of live contemporary dance performance

14 Jun 2011

Fresh from performing in Geneva as part of the International Mapping Festival, one of Scotland’s most innovative companies presents a one-off fusion of live contemporary dance performance, sound and film as part of Cryptic Nights. Inhabitants is…

Narcissus Reflected

The David Lomas-curated Fruitmarket exhibition is an effective reflection of the nature of vanity

27 May 2011

Don McLean got it right in his 1972 song ‘Narcisissima’: ‘Narcissima, Narcisissma is the pride of Pomona/Pomona, Pomona says she looks like me/But she will look like you when I’m set free.’ Narcissus of Greek myth and his Freudian descendant have long…

Victoria Clare Bernie: Slow Water

Scottish landscape photography exhibition by the Edinburgh-based artist

27 May 2011

A scientific orderliness contains Slow Water. Photographs, videos, digital drawings and animation made during a residency post at the Scottish Association for Marine Science Research Laboratory based near Oban are meticulously placed in contrast to the…

Shadows of the Divine features works by John Bellany and John Byrne

A collection of modern religious art pieces at the New College gallery

27 May 2011

This selection of works of modern religious art includes work by a number of well-known artists including Scottish greats Craigie Aitchison, John Bellany, Peter Howson, Ken Currie and John Byrne as well as Graham Sutherland and Elisabeth Frink. These…