Visual art and Exhibition

Hayley Tompkins: Autobuilding

2 Apr 2009

MIXED MEDIA Over the past ten years GSA graduate Tompkins has drawn recognition for her abstract compositions. On the strength of this show, however, hers is an oeuvre that seems to have (to quote American cleric/writer Norman Vincent Peale) been…

Doctor Who - Space Oddity

19 Mar 2009

In four years time Doctor Who will be 50 years old, but still it remains one of the most popular and imagination-grabbing shows on television. While the best of British actors and television writers are lining up to work on it, the series’ first…

Turner & Italy

19 Mar 2009

An exhibition of paintings by JMW Turner may seem a time-worn prospect, but the National Galleries are offering a new take on the man and his work. ‘Turner came to Scotland six times, but he visited Italy on seven occasions,’ says Christopher Baker…

Toby Paterson: Ever Growing Never Old

19 Mar 2009

MIXED MEDIA For anyone who’s ever stood in front of a piece of work by Toby Paterson and thought, ‘It’s nice … but I just don’t get it’, then this exhibition is for you. Ever Growing Never Old is a clear statement of how Paterson works, what inspires…

LGBT Arts Festival Weekend

19 Mar 2009

CREATIVE FESTIVAL LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing, Edinburgh, Fri 20–Sun 22 Mar Scotland’s capital can lay proud boast to being the only city in the UK to have its own dedicated health and wellbeing centre for LGBT folks, which runs…

Brian Hewitt: Life Time

19 Mar 2009

INSTALLATION A familiar name at the Corn Exchange Gallery after his appearance in the Open group show in 2007, and also one of the more attention-grabbing graduates at last y ear’s Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show, Brian Hewitt returns to…

Michael Hakimi: Neocoins

19 Mar 2009

PRINTING/SCULPTURE Berlin-based artist Michael Hakimi exhibits large monochromatic computer generated prints on paper, blown up old-school viewfinders, MDF structures and an object’s aura captured on canvas. Hakimi’s work develops through a process…

Re-make

11 Mar 2009

Empty shop fronts - woeful signs of the sorry economic times or glass-fronted oases awaiting artistic appropriation? For young creatives, who generally tend to be slip streaming the crunch in a blissful state of poverty-stricken ignorance anyway, vacant…

Mr Lautner Builds His Dream House

5 Mar 2009

With a new film and major exhibition celebrating his life and work, maverick architect John Lautner’s time may finally have come. Paul Dale looks back at the life of the man who shaped the look of US moviemaking’s hometown.

Artist Rooms: d’Offay Collection

5 Mar 2009

Outside of major retrospectives, the opportunity to see bodies of work by international artists doesn’t come along too often. This is what struck collector and dealer Anthony d’Offay when he first mooted the Artist Rooms project, which bears its first…

Graham Fagen: Somebodyelse

5 Mar 2009

REVIEW MIXED MEDIA Living up to the promise of its name, The Changing Room’s move to the Tolbooth has led to the gallery’s being successfully reconfigured within a historic setting. In keeping with this theme of recontextualisation, Somebodyelse is a…

Sebastian Buerkner: Glove

5 Mar 2009

Having originally trained as a painter, Sebastian Buerkner became interested in animation while studying for his MA at Chelsea College and never looked back. This, his first exhibition in Scotland, provides a showcase for the artist’s bizarre visual…

Jimmy Robert: Grey Flannel Suits Any Man

19 Feb 2009

In an adaptation of Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut Piece’ for his show Figure de Style at London’s Cubitt Gallery last year, Jimmy Robert bound his torso in strips of tape, which were then ripped off by members of the audience. The performance didn’t stray too far…

Claire Barclay: Openwide

19 Feb 2009

SCULPTURAL INSTALLATION You would have to be made of stern critical stuff to leave Openwide without being profoundly impressed by Claire Barclay’s work. The artist is known for her installations, which often consist of a supporting structure or frame…

Jonathan Owen

19 Feb 2009

SCULPTURE At Doggerfisher’s 2001 inaugural show Edinburgh College of Art graduate Jonathan Owen exhibited a series of irreverent yet deeply ornate cut-outs from lads’ mags, manuals and books. Menacingly splicing together nuclear armour with penises…

Timecode

19 Feb 2009

MIXED MEDIA (GROUP SHOW) ‘Time’ may not seem like the most original theme for an exhibition, but in this case it’s, well, timely. 2009 marks DCA’s tenth birthday and their current show is designed to usher in a celebratory year culminating in the…

Poppycock

19 Feb 2009

An exhibition aimed at art lovers who like to keep their fingers pressed firmly to the pulse of up-and-coming talent, Poppycock showcases work by third year Drawing and Painting and Intermedia students at Edinburgh College of Art. The exhibition, which…

Richard Demarco's countdown to 80

6 Feb 2009

The Edinburgh institution that is Ricky Demarco continues to blow like a hurricane through Auld Reekie. Marking the 40th anniversary of Telford College, Demarco has put on an exhibition, which opened last night, of items from his Demarco European Art…

Claire Barclay: Pastures new

5 Feb 2009

Claire Barclay is safe inside the glass-fronted confines of Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery putting the final touches to her new show, Openwide, on the day we speak. Given the gallery’s smooth interiors, it’s a knowingly apposite title for two…

Jonathan Owen

5 Feb 2009

PREVIEW SCULPTURE Beyond their image of well-ordered conformity the great British suburbs have long been hotbeds of creativity, spawning restless youngsters who flee the semi-detached des-res leafiness to find the throbbing heart of the city. The…

Karla Black - Material world

5 Feb 2009

REVIEW SCULPTURE The perfect storm of grease, dust and cotton wool towelled onto the floor and hanging from ceiling tiles that forms the bulk of Karla Black’s show is something of an assault to eyes not used to squalor. The natural urge is to tidy…

Desire Lines

5 Feb 2009

Edinburgh University’s Talbot Rice Gallery is closing for refurbishment and has invited various artists to choose a public site on campus in which to create work that reaches out to students, staff and the public. The gallery will produce a guide to…

Charles Avery The Islanders: An Introduction

5 Feb 2009

If you value true escapism in art, grab this final opportunity to catch the highly recommended introduction to the work of Mull-born artist Charles Avery. Inspired by his upbringing on the island, Avery’s ongoing project explores the flora and fauna of…

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…

Steve McQueen - Queen and Country

8 Jan 2009

This exhibition by Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winning artist behind the film Hunger and current official war artist, commemorates the British soldiers who have died in Iraq through the creation of books of stamps depicting the soldiers. A campaign…

Karla Black - Material world

8 Jan 2009

If 2008 was a good year for Karla Black, 2009 is going to be even better. After several international solo shows and inclusion in Art Now at Tate Britain, the Glasgow-based artist is on the cusp of another busy 12 months. Solo exhibitions are in the…

rep’e.t’tion

8 Jan 2009

REVIEW MIXED MEDIA A little jewel of a show can currently be found lodged below Argyle Street in Glasgow, featuring works by a variety of local and international artists who share a common interest in the idea of repetition. Curated by Sorcha Dallas…

Franziska Furter: Spark Erosion

8 Jan 2009

Swiss artist Franziska Furter here presents a challenging series of sophisticated conceptual works. The skin and bones of this exhibition are graphite drawings, PVC pebbles, and electrical tape sculptures, none too exciting or provocative in their own…

Charles Avery, The Islanders: An Introduction

11 Dec 2008

REVIEW DRAWING, PAINTING AND SCULPTURE Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 15 Feb In 2004 artist Charles Avery began charting the creatures, topology and cosmology of an imaginary island. This exhibition presents his…

Eva Rothschild

11 Dec 2008

The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Fri 19 Dec REVIEW SCULPTURE AND MIXED MEDIA You may experience a frisson of excitement upon entering Eva Rothschild’s exhibition at the Modern Institute. At first glance, it may seem that you’ve stumbled into…

Alasdair Gray & Alasdair Taylor: The Two Alasdairs

11 Dec 2008

Mackintosh Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, until Sat 10 Jan REVIEW PAINTING AND DRAWING Underrated for many years, Alasdair Gray is now rightly hailed as an artist of note. This exhibition will bring him further plaudits, but what about the…

Gerhard Richter: Paintings

11 Dec 2008

Time is running out to catch the first retrospective in the UK for 20 years of Gerhard Richter’s work (his first ever exhibition in Scotland). The stunning show reflects the zeitgeist of Richter’s native Germany between World War II and the early Cold…

Gerhard Richter

Man for all seasons

30 Oct 2008

When Sonic Youth toured their 1988 Daydream Nation album in 2007 on the back of the same year's two-CD deluxe edition of what had originally been the New York art rock pioneers' final independent release, the original LP cover art was probably the last…

Golden years - Tracey Emin

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

As the leading female light of Britart, Tracey Emin has been revered and rejected in equal measure. Writer and broadcaster Bidisha has a few words of scorn for the detractors and reflects on the already profound legacy she will leave behind It’s been…

Scavengers - Joshua Sofaer interview

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

Anneka Rice may have popularised scavenging but performance artist Joshua Sofaer is taking it to a new level. Claire Sawers asks him why he wants to trash Edinburgh Joshua Sofaer was wandering around a London art gallery recently, minding his own…

Turning point - Richard Wilson

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

Installation artist Richard Wilson is a true pioneer whether he’s experimenting with drawing, film or sculpture. Rosie Lesso hears from the man about how he loves to defy preconceptions British artist Richard Wilson has an uncanny ability to distort…

Room with a view - Ingleby Gallery

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

From much-missed nightclub space to the biggest commercial gallery outside of London, Kirstin Innes goes behind the scenes at the new Ingleby Gallery

Andrew Grassie

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

There promises to be a lot of visitors doing a double-take in front of Andrew Grassie’s paintings at Edinburgh University’s Talbot Rice Gallery this summer. While a fleeting glance might suggest that the images are photographs, Grassie actually…

Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

Between the wars, the world changed. European cities were rebuilt taller and denser than before, with new technology giving rise to an industrial and creative hub. More than half a century on, this major touring show originating from Washington’s…

Best of the rest - Edinburgh Art Festival

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

Richard Hamilton One of the key figures of British Pop Art brings us Protest Pictures, a selection of paintings, installations and collages examining his often damning portrayal of politics, movements and leaders. Inverleith House, Inverleith…

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

Husband and wife duo Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are quite possibly the most vibrant artistic force to have emerged from Canada in recent years. Certainly, this show will be one of the least missable exhibitions of the Festival period, as…

Cathy Wilkes: Prices

17 Jul 2008

REVIEW INSTALLATION The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 6 Sep Cathy Wilkes is adept at creating compelling discomfort, making us look, and look again at queasy or disturbing phenomena in search of hidden meanings and narratives. In this…

Mark Neville: Fancy Pictures

17 Jul 2008

REVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM Mount Stuart, Isle Of Bute, until Tue 30 Sep A man sits at his living room table, a pet pug and its pups at his feet. An elderly couple walk through the countryside, posing for the camera, stiff-backed and proud. The…

Altered States of Paint

17 Jul 2008

REVIEW PAINTING (GROUP SHOW) DCA, Dundee, until Sun 7 Sep DCA’s excellent new exhibition manages to assail you before you even enter the gallery, thanks to Rabiya Choudhry’s vibrant wall painting that presents the show’s title across the blade…

Karin Christiansen and Lys Hansen: The Other Side – A Dialogue

17 Jul 2008

REVIEW PAINTING & SCULPTURE Collins Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 16 Aug (closed Fri 18–Mon 21 Jul) Lou Reed had never been to Berlin before he wrote his doomed rock opera named after the then divided city. If he had, it might have been even…

Au Fil D’Ecosse

17 Jul 2008

REVIEW PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY, INSTALLATION Institut Français, Edinburgh, until Fri 29 Aug This collaboration between artist Cyril Barrand and poet John Hudson leaves no thread untied, no thematic ambiguity unresolved, with the result that our…

Harry Smith Anthology Remixed

17 Jul 2008

REVIEW PAINTING, DRAWING, PHOTOGRAPHY, MUSIC CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 26 Jul Artist, filmmaker, musicologist: just a few of the labels attached to Harry Smith, the great American polymath of the 1950s. This exhibition celebrates the chain-smoking…

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…

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…

Street + Gallery

National Gallery Complex, until Sun 4 May

10 Apr 2008

We walk past them everyday. Some of us slow down briefly and spare a few coins. But how many of us slow down and spare a thought for their hopes, dreams and concerns. For the ‘Street + Gallery’ outreach exhibition The National Galleries of Scotland…

Go west: Print The Legend

13 Mar 2008

The idea of the American West once stretched out like a great virginal expanse of prairie, a fantasy only limited by imagination and the Pacific Ocean. This myth is not only an American obsession, but one that the whole western genre film-viewing world…

GROUP SHOW, Doggerfisher

13 Mar 2008

Doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sat 26 Apr Doggerfisher’s annual group show brings together work by recent graduates and more established artists. Refreshingly, the gallery unites the six artists via an interest in formal concerns with space and…

Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius

31 Jan 2008

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY The name Ansel Adams is virtual shorthand for landscape photography at its finest. A shy child prodigy, home-schooled and self-taught to read and play music at the age of 12, the teenaged Californian first experienced…

Carol Rhodes

4 Jan 2008

Carol Rhodes’ meditative, repetitive approach to landscape painting could be linked to artists such as Friedrich, Corot, Monet or Cezanne, each in their own way sharing an obsession with the genre, though, as the artist Merlin James points out: ‘Rhodes…

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…

Anthea Hamilton and Thomas Kratz

4 Jan 2008

INSTALLED PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES Mary Mary, Glasgow, until 26 Jan There is a history of sexed-up artistic collaborations in 20th century art, a long line of cosy twosomes that come together for occasional aesthetic satisfaction. The work on show by…

Openended Group: Moves

4 Jan 2008

INSTALLED DIGITAL FILMS CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 12 Jan After a spate of uninteresting exhibitions that have attempted to turn the CCA into a ‘major platform for electronic and digital work’, we are faced with another technologically interesting but…

Quentin Blake

29 Nov 2007

ILLUSTRATION Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, until Tue 1 Jan When you take an illustration away from the text it was created for, the lone image can quickly become a very dire prospect or can leave the viewer scratching their head…

Roman Signer - Action man

29 Nov 2007

Since the 1970s Swiss artist Roman Signer has been making eccentric kinetic art, enlivening both himself and found objects with elemental forces such as wind, fire, water or explosives. At first glance, Signer’s clowning around seems to lack substance…

Monika Sosnowska: Display

29 Nov 2007

INSTALLATION / SCULPTURE Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 8 Dec Stripping architecture of its purpose and concentrating purely on the aesthetic possibilities of public space, the work of Monika Sosnowska plays games with the formalities of…

Ten Decades

29 Nov 2007

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE City Art Centre, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 Jan Like a weighty history text, this commemorative retrospective, celebrating the centenary of Edinburgh College of Art, is exhausting. While seepage thankfully dapples its linear…

Thomas Houseago

29 Nov 2007

SCULPTURE The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 5 Jan LA-based, Leeds-born Houseago makes his Glasgow debut at the Modern Institute with slashed and scraped figurative works, sculptures that amalgamate stylistic elements from Cubism…

The Openended Group: Moves

29 Nov 2007

FILM INSTALLATION CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 12 Jan In response to the CCA’s ethos of promoting electronic and digital work, the OpenEnded Group exhibits a series of ‘moving image’ works exploring the relationship between choreography, space and…

Jason Nelson

29 Nov 2007

PRINTMAKING, FILM The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Dec The Collective Gallery’s annual New Work Scotland exhibition this year showcases, among others, the work of Dundee-based artist Jason Nelson. Born in the ex-mining town of Kelty…

Convulsive Illustration

29 Nov 2007

An exhibition of work that creates a ‘creeping feeling of the sinister and scabrous... in an attempt to keep the conventions of commercial art at pox-ridden arm’s length’. Twelve artists exhibit their work, including Georg Barber, Silvia Battista, Arne…

Tom Phillips: A Humument

29 Nov 2007

An exhibition depicting how Phillips transformed an obscure Victorian novel (A Human Document by WH Mallock) into a postmodern masterpiece. A Humument is widely regarded as one of the most successful and influential artist’s books of the last 50…

Spanning the void

1 Nov 2007

Think of post-war Eastern European modernisation and what comes to mind? Invariably, it is the drab, rashly executed housing blocks, service pavilions, train stations and shopping centres that inspire Monika Sosnowska, leading the Polish artist to…

Roman Signer: Works

1 Nov 2007

Roman Signer’s sculptural happenings, devoid as they are of nostalgia, reference or history, are usually received with a marvellous grin. Conventional narrative is displaced by simple Signer happenings such as a floating plastic bag, a rolling barrel.

Gary Fabian Miller & Edmund de Wall

4 Oct 2007

Repetition, when performed by the human hand, will always be peppered with tiny differences. This is evidence of man’s failing against the machine, yet there is, of course, unexpected pleasure to be found in human error. It is a subject of fascination…

Hitlist - The best exhibitions

4 Oct 2007

Duncan Marquiss: The Clay Wall Marquiss has quickly become a respected and influential artist working in Scotland, and has recently received a Scottish Arts Council/Scottish Screen Artists Film and Video Award to continue working in the medium of film.

Duncan Marquiss: The Clay Wall

4 Oct 2007

To see our insides on the outside disrupts our idea of self. Blood and vomit repulse us because they muddy our notions of the self/other split, and expose the fragile nature of our subjectivity. It is this state of troubled subjecthood, and most…

Beyond the Surface

20 Sep 2007

California-based photographer Andrew Printer’s work explores issues of queer identity in relation to intimacy, risk and suspicion in a post-Aids environment (his ‘Touch Me’ series), and takes a sideways glance at the notion of queers being accepted by…

Bridge artwork bought for exhibition

7 Sep 2007

The National Galleries of Scotland has bought a photographic artwork of the Forth Rail Bridge, which will become the centerpiece of a new exhibition in Edinburgh. The work by German artist Dieter Appelt, Forth Bridge – Cinema.Metric Space (2002), was…

Touching the void

6 Sep 2007

There’s something about the term ‘the void’ that grates ever so slightly. The mention of it conjures up, at best, the Jungian notion that we humans are empty vessels into which experience is poured. The term is so overused that when you meet it in the…

Art-felt gesture for Glasgow galleries

4 Sep 2007

A collection of contemporary art is to go on public display in Glasgow after BBC Scotland donated its collection to the city council’s museums service. Consisting of more than 100 works, mainly from the 1980s, the collection includes contributions…

David Rokeby

9 Aug 2007

The CCA continues its exploration of the relationship between technology and art, with the first major show and retrospective of Canadian-born artist David Rokeby. The exhibition brings together five of his award-winning installations, new media…

Andy Warhol

9 Aug 2007

Andy Warhol is 20th century America. It is impossible to decide which came first. Did he create that nation’s brash, shiny, sexy yet sickening materialism, or is he a product of it? The exhibition of his work at the National Gallery makes it impossible…

Picasso: Fired with Passion

9 Aug 2007

The crowd puller/money spinner for this exhibition is its heavy emphasis on Picasso’s ceramic work, running from his later years of 1947–1961 and all produced whilst living and working in the South of France. And indeed they are fascinating, ranging…

David Batchelor

9 Aug 2007

David Batchelor has been a busy man of late, scouring pound shops in London and Scotland for pegs, combs, cutlery, clothes pegs, children’s toys, girly hair accessories and a whole manner of other cheap plastic objects in preparation for this new site…

David Batchelor and Nikolai Suetin

9 Aug 2007

Now in its tenth year as one of Edinburgh’s established independent galleries, the Ingleby has chosen to mark the occasion with a series of 26 small-scale shows which present a work by a well-known contemporary artists alongside another ‘complementary…

William Kentridge

9 Aug 2007

One of South Africa’s most highly-regarded artists, it seems somehow appropriate that this first Scottish collection of William Kentridge’s print works should fall in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival. Although this show concentrates solely on his…

The Comic Book Project

9 Aug 2007

In a brave move, the curatorial team at the Collective have chosen to lighten the mood and go against the fashion for dry, high concept work that has clogged Scottish galleries for the last ten years or so. The Comic Book Project is the first leg of a…

Picture perfect

1 Aug 2007

From international stars like Andy Warhol and Picasso to Turner Prize winners and home grown talent, Alexander Kennedy finds rich pickings in the Edinburgh Art Festival

Naked Portrait

1 Aug 2007

In contrast with the ‘nude’ figure in western art history, the naked portrait still manages to present a sometimes shocking and raw view of the sitter’s personality that reaches beyond their public façade.

Museums reap £25.3m in treasures

27 Jul 2007

British museums received a windfall worth more than £25.3 million in precious objects as a result of inheritance tax last year, with calls being made to give tax breaks to donors who pledge treasures to the state after their death. The government will…

Richard Long

3 Jul 2007

When art exited the gallery in the 1960s, the street outside became a theatre for performances and an arena for installations - a move that simultaneously questioned the sanctity of the art object and the white cube that protected it. Some artists opted…

Tender Scene: Group Show

3 Jul 2007

DRAWING, SCULPTURE AND INSTALLATION After a successful exhibition at Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice as part of the third leg of his 2005 Venice Biennale contribution, Alex Pollard exhibits his work again, taking over as curator at Stirling’s Changing Room…

Alex Pollard

White lines, black marks

23 Apr 2007

If the 70s were the era that fashion forgot, the 80s were the decade that fashion had a gushing aneurism. There was something for everyone, with David Bowie managing to embrace almost every genre and fashion. Thankfully he lost it in the 90s and we got…

Nan Hoover and Nina Könnemann

Sex, Art and Videotape

9 Apr 2007

Early experiments in film by artists remind us that the birth of psychoanalysis and cinema happened at almost exactly the same time, with surrealists adding hermetically sealed packages of poetic and suggestive images to narrative cinema.