Visual Art, Reviews

Chinese Contemporary Art - Asking for It

8 May 2008

China has become something of a cause célèbre in contemporary art market circles. Tales abound of international collectors swooping in to snap up entire bodies of work, leaving artists with empty studios and considerably enriched bank accounts. Whether…

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…

Melanie Gilligan

8 May 2008

PERFORMANCE AND INSTALLATION Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May This exhibition by London-based artist and writer Melanie Gilligan takes place not in the usual Transmission gallery, but in an upper Wasps studio space opposite. The…

Records Played Backwards

8 May 2008

GROUP SHOW The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May Just like the teenager in the 80s playing his or her Iron Maiden records in reverse while hoping to hear Satanic messages, the artists in this group exhibition busy themselves trying to find…

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…

Jim Lambie: Forever Changes

24 Apr 2008

SCULPTURE AND INSTALLATION Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Mon 29 Sep Lambie seems to be an ideal choice for the Gallery of Modern Art’s contribution to the Glasgow International, particularly given his established international reputation yet…

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…

Adel Abdessemed: Trust Me

24 Apr 2008

REVIEW VIDEO, DRAWING AND INSTALLATION The Common Guild, Glasgow until Sat 7 Jun One of Adel Abdessemed’s videos was rejected by the Gi’s committee for this exhibition due to its excessive violence. This further cemented his reputation as an artist…

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…

Group Show: Run 'Run'

24 Apr 2008

SCULPTURE, FILM AND DRAWING The Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, until Sat 3 May There has always been an indubitable relationship between art and science. A charcoal mark made on a cave wall is the result of various scientific…

Arctic Circus and Skylights

16 Apr 2008

Edinburgh Printmakers seem to be inviting comparison between two solo exhibitions exploring Northern light, relying on the cantilever of their difference. But it’s the common thread of exploration that elevates both. Lithographer Gill Tyson’s…

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…

EJ Major: Try to do things we all can understand

10 Apr 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINTS AND FILM Street Level, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May Photographs capture nothing. Portraits are even more successful at framing the absence at the core of subjectivity and how this can be signified through the image. This is neither as…

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…

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…

Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz: Waiting for Maleism

27 Mar 2008

INSTALLATION Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 5 Apr The title an artist gives to an exhibition can act as a manifesto, and Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz’s ‘Waiting for Maleism’ is no exception. He’s asking for trouble. The work on show comprises installed…

Torsten Lauschmann

27 Mar 2008

PHOTOGRAPHS, INSTALLATION AND SCULPTURE GoMA, Glasgow, until Mon 26 May It’s difficult to pin down Glasgow-based Torsten Lauschmann’s work. All attempts to create a narrative or to find some kind of justification or single intention fail. This is the…

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…

Let Me Show You Some Things: The Magic Lantern, Robert Orchardson and Sarah Tripp

13 Mar 2008

This collaborative installation brings together a large collection of films previously shown at The Magic Lantern (an independent film night at the CCA), a new film by Sarah Tripp and sculptures by Robert Orchardson. The short film format is ideally…

Luke Fowler: Bogman Palmjaguar

13 Mar 2008

In his new 30-minute film, titled after an eccentric subject who sees himself as being in symbolic union with the great cat, Glasgow filmmaker Luke Fowler manages to combine measured storytelling with a readjusted idea of documentary realism. Bogman…

Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius

28 Feb 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY City Art Centre, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 Apr The natural ecological bent with which Ansel Adams’ work is infused means that a show like this could never be more timely, and many might read a somewhat sombre note in his otherwise…

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…

Joanna Kane: The Somnambulists

28 Feb 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 6 Apr This small exhibition features newly commissioned photographs by Joanna Kane of the collection of 19th century life and death masks currently on loan to the National Portrait Gallery.

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

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…

Stephen Healy: Ethereal

28 Feb 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Streetlevel, Glasgow, until Sat 22 Mar The large photographs by Stephen Healy at Streetlevel continue his interventions into remote locations, in the form of sculptural installations, site-specific artworks and photo-based projects. This…

Them: Artur Zmijewski

28 Feb 2008

VIDEO AND INSTALLATION The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Mar Polish filmmaker Artur Zmijewski has established an international reputation and this film, ‘Them’, was originally shown at Documenta 12. The film is a documentary ‘social…

Camilla Low: Straight Letters

14 Feb 2008

SCULPTURE DCA, Dundee, until Sun 30 Mar Despite receiving her education at Glasgow School of Art, this is the first major solo exhibition in the UK by Norwegian sculptor Camilla Low. With this in mind it’s fortunate that a venue the size of the DCA is…

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…

Split Personality - Alan Michael

31 Jan 2008

Rosie Lesso creates an imaginative map of associations as she considers the work of painter Alan Michael Like many artists before him, Alan Michael’s first point of reference is the sea of visual information we encounter as by-products of…

Kendall Koppe and Douglas Morland: The Great Release

31 Jan 2008

PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND PRINT The Intermedia space is a slippery fish, but it is usually worth trying to land the thing. The exhibition by Kendall Koppe and Douglas Morland is a case in point. The work on show deals with aspects of subjectivity that…

Spencer Sweeny

31 Jan 2008

PAINTING There’s less shtick and more confidence in this exhibition of paintings by New York-based artist Spencer Sweeney. The freewheeling, almost accidental approach to image-making that the artist employed in his previous exhibition in the space…

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…

Donald Urquhart

17 Jan 2008

While this exhibition of drawings by Edinburgh-based Donald Urquhart, who is more commonly associated with sculptural public art projects such as ‘The Sanctuary’ at Edinburgh’s New Royal Infirmary, is billed as covering the period 1977–2007, that’s…

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…

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…

Weirding and the Uncanny

13 Dec 2007

Curated by Glasgow School of Art MFA student Levi Haines, and featuring contributors from GSA, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh’s Embassy Gallery and Haines’ native Portland, Oregon, the show is tightly-packed and busy. It’s impossible to retain some…

Group show: Re-make/Re-model

13 Dec 2007

Contemporary art curators and gallery owners no longer merely show work because it’s good but because it somehow justifies itself through weighty themes and explication. This is art’s loss. The exhibition of work by Linder, Sophie MacPherson, Babette…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Tom Phillips - Word and image

15 Nov 2007

In 1966 the artist Tom Phillips went on a shopping expedition in Peckham, casually looking for a book to play with and adapt. Chance led him to a copy of WH Mallock’s A Human Document, an obscure and relatively forgotten Victorian novel, which the…

Gillespie, Kidd and Coia: 1956–1987

15 Nov 2007

ARCHITECTURE The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Sun 10 Feb It’s always difficult to review an architecture exhibition. Do you focus on the realised buildings or the sketches, blueprints and models on show and the way they are presented? At first…

Keith Farquhar

15 Nov 2007

ARTIST-CURATED SHOW Embassy, Edinburgh, until Sun 18 Nov Blurring the line between curation and creation, this new show by Edinburgh artist Keith Farquhar exists – as the artist himself states – to serve as ‘advertisements’ for the work of Henri…

Marjolaine Ryley

15 Nov 2007

PHOTOGRAPHY Street Level, Glasgow, until Sat 22 Dec The exhibition of photos by Sunderland-based Marjolaine Ryley at Street Level does exactly what we now expect photography to do in the eternally expansive post-modern moment – register and present…