Visual art

Alex Dordoy

Overarching sense of the mutability of physical objects

3 Feb 2012

Alex Dordoy’s new body of work mixes the digital and the analogue, the abstract and the real, in a search for new means of perception. Three bright and eye-catching panoramic canvases – meticulously painted reproductions of digitally abstracted figures…

Roger Ackling - interview

The visual artist's current exhibition features burnt images created using magnifying glasses

3 Feb 2012

What was the first exhibition you went to see? Something at the Wallace Collection, London. Maybe Brueghel. What was your first paid job as an artist? Part time teaching at Wimbledon School of Art. What kind of music do you listen to while…

GFF 2012 - 85A presents: Jan Svankmajer

Judd Brucke of 85A discusses the art collective's tribute to the Czech filmmaker

2 Feb 2012

‘One of our comrades was approached by the GFF to do something with the festival,’ says Judd Brucke, a member of the collective of Glasgow-based multi-disciplinary artists that stage weird and wonderful live events under the banner 85A. That something…

The Sculpture Show

Well-managed and educational group sculpture show also contains big impressions

1 Feb 2012

Those who find their attention can escape the orbit of this show’s central spectacle – Ron Mueck’s striking ‘A Girl’, a life-like model of a quite grumpy-looking newborn baby girl rendered as a vast monolith many dozens of times the size of nature…

Allan Sekula: Ship of Fools

Large-scale images explore shipping industry’s role in exploitation of labour

1 Feb 2012

Now that capitalism is a sinking ship with assorted captains scrambling for the lifeboats, Allan Sekula’s ongoing photographic exploration of globalisation in motion is the perfect metaphor for a world all at sea. This most recent series by the…

Anna Barriball

Sculpture show from the Plymouth-born artist contains a relaxed humour

1 Feb 2012

There’s a certain fascination in concealment within the work of Plymouth-born Anna Barriball, a tension between what the works appear to be and what they actually are. Is a framed, full-sized pencil rubbing of a door a drawing of said door, or are its…

Preview of 2012 - The best events this year

Featuring the Cultural Olympiad, The Dark Knight Rises, WU LYF, Glasgow International and more

9 Jan 2012

It’s 2012, but fear not, things aren’t as bad as they seem. Before you decide to occupy government property, or smash a brick through Dixons, take heart in the folklore of a simpler age. For when times are black, you can always rely on the comfort of…

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery want your children to become Portrait Detectives

New events to get kids interested in the refurbished Gallery

9 Jan 2012

Under wraps for the past two and a half years, the newly re-opened Scottish National Portrait Gallery cuts quite a dash. But for younger visitors, the wow factor generated by a £17 million spend can be hard to see. Which is why events like Portrait…

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…

Preview of 2012 - Martin Creed: All the Bells

Turner Prize winner invites Brits to ring in the Olympics

6 Jan 2012

Controversial he may be but conceptual artist Martin Creed has always been brutally honest with the paying public. His most famous work to date, Work No. 227: the lights going on and off, did exactly what it said on the tin and helped the Glasgow-raised…

Preview of 2012 - Arika12

Mind expanding, cross-art discussion festival from the INSTAL and Kill Your Timid Notion creators

6 Jan 2012

'At a conference or festival, the best discussions are often the ones you have at the bar,’ says Barry Esson, co-organiser of Arika12. So, in the hope of stimulating some thought-provoking and who knows, maybe even life-enhancing discussion, he and…

Central Station: Garry Maclennan

The Glasgow-based, Brora-born photographer favours odd exhibition spaces

5 Jan 2012

Originally from Brora in the far north east of Scotland, photographer Garry Maclennan currently lives and works in Glasgow. In the last six years he has founded a collaborative photography studio in a hidden cul-de-sac in Glasgow’s West End, been…

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…

Profile: Scottish photographer David Eustace

Photographer's work can be found in newly reopened Scottish National Portrait Gallery

21 Dec 2011

David Eustace may not yet be a household name from the world of photography, but with the imminent reopening of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which will feature several samples of his work, now seemed like as good a time as any to get…

What Presence! – The Rock Photography of Harry Papadopoulos

Stunning exhibition of post-punk music photography

19 Dec 2011

Harry Papadopoulos is the great unsung documenter of post-punk, who, between 1978 and 1984, captured a crucial era in pop history in all its geeky glory. Having started out taking snaps for Bobby Bluebell’s fanzine, The Ten Commandments, and orbiting…

Alasdair Gray: City Recorder

Fantastic exhibition of drawings chronicling Glasgow's past

19 Dec 2011

For one year in 1977, at a time when many of Glasgow’s famous old industries were closing, Alasdair Gray was commissioned to capture the life of the city in ink, watercolour, acrylic and oil on paper. Glasgow’s local history museum, the People’s Palace…

Gifts that keep giving: Postal subscriptions

Subscribe to NotAnotherBill.com, or film memberships at the GFT, Cameo or LOVEFiLM

19 Dec 2011

Fluffy slippers that can be heated in the microwave. Mobile phone holders in the shape of endangered species. Socks bearing the legend ‘world’s best grandad’. Ned Corbett-Winder promises that his gift-a-month website notanotherbill.com will most…

The Virginia Gallery - Adults-only LGBT art in Glasgow

Why adults-only policy provides flexibility that most spaces don’t have

19 Dec 2011

If you’ve walked down Virginia Street recently, you might have seen Luke and Jack, an exotic 18+ adult boutique. What you might not have noticed is The Virginia Gallery, the art space nestled below which is fast gaining a rep for supporting erotic and…

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…

Alison Watt – Hiding in Full View

The artist's paintings are good, but suffer in comparison to the photography of Francesca Woodman

19 Dec 2011

‘All rooms will hide you, if you stand just so – ghosts know this, that’s really all they know,’ declares one of the poems by Don Paterson (a credited collaborator in this show), which are printed in fluid lower case type just below eye level on the…

Andrew Kerr – So Ensconced

Over 70 new paintings in this debut solo exhibition from the Glasgow-based artist

19 Dec 2011

Absence makes the heart grow fonder in Andrew Kerr’s first major solo show in Scotland. Almost 70 new paintings discreetly dominate both floors, only interrupted by the odd smattering of drawings or sculptural intervention. Most of the mainly…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 7: Martin Boyce on winning the Turner Prize

The Glasgow artist on Glasgow School of Art, fame and the future

16 Dec 2011

Unlike his work, Martin Boyce doesn’t appear to have any angles. Two days before scooping the 2011 Turner Prize for A Library of Leaves, his 2010 show at Zurich’s Galerie Eva Presenhuber, the Hamilton-born, Glasgow School of Art-trained maker of…

Best of 2011: Visual Art

The best exhibitions in Scotland in 2011 including Jeremy Millar, August Sander and BAS7

14 Dec 2011

Jeremy Millar: Resemblances, Sympathies and Other Acts Many artists use their own bodies as the basis for their work, but few have done it so literally as Jeremy Millar. A life-sized silicon cast of the artist, entitled ‘Self Portrait as a Drowned Man…

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery re-opens

Edinburgh gallery transformed after major refurbishment

14 Dec 2011

The public and exhibition space within the Gallery has increased by more than 60% since its refurbishment; as well as the traditional (and much missed) artworks from the likes of Ramsay, Nasmyth and Raeburn being on prominent display, the new Scottish…

The List launches new cultural awards

The List Award 2011 shortlist includes David Greig, Karla Black, Aidan Moffat and David Mackenzie

12 Dec 2011

The List introduces its own end-of-year cultural award, plus a Best Newcomer award. The awards complement The List's annual creative talent list The Hot 100, the 2011 edition of which is published on 14 Dec The winners to be announced at a Hot 100…

Beholder

Gloriously disparate jumbled-up wonderland of art for art’s sake that’s a joy to wander through

9 Dec 2011

‘Beauty’, according to that man David Hume, whose tercentenary year is almost up, ‘is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.’ So it goes in this bumper grab bag of some 50 works, each subjectively…

Torsten Lauschmann: Startle Reaction

Explores tangled-up mess of interconnectivity

9 Dec 2011

You don’t immediately notice the quieter, more domestic pieces in Torsten Lauschmann’s biggest box of tricks to date. The subverted digital clock above the DCA box office and the wired-up chandelier that hangs in Gallery One, where two of Lauschmann’s…

Interview: Lili Reynaud-Dewar

Artist on her performance piece that draws on her early ballet training

9 Dec 2011

What first made you want to be an artist? I’d like to answer that it was the fact of spending hours in the 70s as a toddler in my Dad’s jazz record shop, but actually it wasn’t. I don’t know at all what happened to me. I might have been slightly…

Hidden City

Edinburgh Printmakers members’ show a mixed bag

9 Dec 2011

In compiling their latest, largest annual members’ show, Edinburgh Printmakers have imposed an unwitting watermark of quality with their decision to give it a theme. ‘Edinburgh Uncovered’ is the subtitle, and the collection claims to offer ‘an intimate…

Henrik Håkansson: The End

Video installation centres around death of several flies

9 Dec 2011

Its body cracks under the whip. Wings tear apart, legs fall open, torso flinching, and its head flops lifeless to one side. The momentous instant of the death of the fly is elongated, scored and played back on a grand scale. Then another appears. The…

Cassandra Harrison

Artist's works feature architecture, textiles, fabrics and stitching

9 Dec 2011

Cassandra Harrison is a print and textile artist based in Edinburgh. Born in a small farming town in Nebraska, graduating with honours from a university that no longer exists, Cassandra eventually arrived in the UK where she is currently attempting to…

St Andrew's Day - The best art from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish art through history

25 Nov 2011

Virtually unknown until the late 1940s The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (to give the full name of the painting more commonly known as The Skating Minister) is now something of a Scottish cultural icon. The image was created by…

Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh reopens

Three-year rejuvenation makes collection more accessible

18 Nov 2011

It’s a starry night in early November, and I’m about to get my first taster of the newly refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The imposing sandstone building that sprawls across an entire block of Edinburgh’s Queen Street has been closed…

Abandoned Scotland - How derelict historic buildings are being documented

The urban explorers investigating the nation’s forgotten architecture

18 Nov 2011

‘I love it when you see a sign that says “Dangerous Building – Do Not Enter”,’ says Veranique Dron as we walk back down from the hill overlooking Edinburgh’s Barnton Quarry. ‘“Building at risk” – it’s only an invitation.’ From the crest of that hill…

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…

Gayle Chong-Kwan: The Obsidian Isle

The photographer talks about her latest exhibition, inspired by the blind third century poet Ossian

15 Nov 2011

The Obsidian Isle documents a fictional island on which exist Scotland’s lost and destroyed buildings and places. What inspired this? As part of a photography award I received in 2009 I had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout Scotland. I…

Bill Bollinger

The contemporary of Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse et al gets his own well-deserved retrospective

15 Nov 2011

Onscreen in black and white, a man is attempting to stand a log upright of its own volition. Time and again the man methodically lifts the log off the ground, moving it from horizontal to vertical before it topples as though felled with some invisible…

The Scottish Colourists series: FCB Cadell

Retrospective of the early 20th century colourist's work displays a life-long development of talent

15 Nov 2011

To modern eyes this retrospective of the work of early 20th century Edinburgh colourist FCB Cadell might appear a little staid, a procession of chintzy New Town interiors and still life compositions involving china crockery and the distinctive white…

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…

The Writing On Your Wall

Rob Tufnell-curated group show chronicling the history of radical print

28 Oct 2011

When Jeremy Deller put Rupert Murdoch’s walnut face on a sky-blue ‘Vote Conservative’ poster to raise funds for the Labour Party, it looked like satire. Given the ongoing phone-hacking saga, it now feels like prophecy. The ‘Murdoch Doesn’t Give A XXX…

Hiding in Full View - Alison Watt interview

The painter discusses her latest exhibition, a response to American photographer Francesca Woodman

21 Oct 2011

What first made you want to be a painter? My father is a painter, so the idea of looking at and making paintings has always been a very normal and natural activity for me. The place I felt most at home as a child was in my father’s studio. It seemed to…

Artist Elad Lassry eschews symbolism is his film project, 'Untitled (Ghost)'

Exhibition bound for the Tramway after appearing at the Venice Biennale

21 Oct 2011

Fresh from exhibiting at this year’s Venice Biennale, Elad Lassry’s characteristic conceptual layering of mainstream subjects and everyday agencies such as advertising and cinema will be on display at Tramway in his film ‘Untitled (Ghost)’. As Lassry…

Ciara Phillips: The only rule is work

Exhibition the result of a three-month residency at Kendall Koppe, inspired by Sister Corita Kent

21 Oct 2011

‘The only rule is work’ is one of ten accommodating rules for students and teachers developed by artist and educator Sister Corita Kent. Ciara Phillips’ exhibition is the result of her three-month residency in the gallery space where she shared a…

Central Station: Charlie Anderson

Provocative rising artist with an eye on contemporary culture

21 Oct 2011

Since graduating in 2009, Charlie Anderson has pissed off art collectors, curators, graffiti writers, three world-renowned artists, been threatened by a leading London gallerist, and has been punched in the face by an Edinburgh artist. He has also won…

Lucy Roscoe - The Beach House

Collection of sea-themed prints and paper sculptures in convivial deli setting

21 Sep 2011

Edinburgh-based artist-illustrator and founder of the Book Tree Press, Lucy Roscoe, brings a body of new work to Edinburgh’s Broughton Deli. The Beach House is the tenth in a specially curated series by Nicola Brooks and fills the space with delicate…

Photographer Elad Lassry to bring film Untitled (Ghost) to Tramway

Scottish appointment follows artistic recognition in Venice and Germany

21 Sep 2011

What does modern mean? Does it mean commerical, bright, and futuristic? Or is modernity simply something to do with how our view of the past changes over time? These aren’t new ideas to occupy the mind of an up-and-coming visual artist, but Elad…

Graham Fagen: Missing

Moving video installation running parallel to the Tramway's Andrew O'Hagan-penned theatre production

21 Sep 2011

Graham Fagen’s moving video diptych Missing explores the experience of going missing, and what it is like for those left behind. Commissioned by the Scottish National Portrait gallery, it is produced in partnership with the National Theatre of Scotland…

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…

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…

Alan Reid: Boudoir Concrete

Delicately balanced clashing of art and design

16 Sep 2011

Looking for all the world like propaganda posters for Nazi leisure organisation Kraft durch Freude, Alan Reid’s representational drawings of lissome young bodies appear to promote healthy living and sexless appeal. Lithe bodies are interrupted by…

Gary Rough - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. . .

Meshing of conceptual ideas that leaves no lasting impression

16 Sep 2011

Running at Sorcha Dallas for the next month is Gary Rough’s latest Glasgow exhibition Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc..., a meshing of two conceptual ideas, the ongoing collection of 1,984 copies of George Orwell’s classic, 1984, and the attempted…

Central Station - Laurie Hastings

16 Sep 2011

Laurie Hastings is an illustrator and printmaker, striving to produce images that capture and communicate the imagery and narrative of a text. People are often central to the images Laurie creates: she enjoys conveying an emotion or a certain tension…

Paul Muzni: Configure

Versatility found among abstracted oil and pastel pieces of Edinburgh artist

30 Aug 2011

Edinburgh artist Muzni treats the eyes in this collection of life works focusing on the female nude, constantly striving to keep his approach as fresh as the colours that make up his delicately abstracted oil and pastel pieces. The use of pastel is a…

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Lightning Fields and Photogenic Drawings

Breathtaking exploration of both photography and science

25 Aug 2011

To say that Sugimoto's contribution to the Edinburgh International Festival is striking would be an understatement. This is the first time these works have been displayed in Europe. The Japanese photography pioneer’s huge analogue 'Lightning Fields…

Vault Art Glasgow is an inventive new art market

Featuring artists Dawn Youll, Ellie Harrison and Risa Tsunegi

24 Aug 2011

Vault is a new art fair that will take place inside an art installation, set inside an arts space, that houses artists’ studios. Like a Russian doll the event playfully peals back the dominant layers of today’s art market, to reveal independent practice…

Detours film project at 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival

Responses to work by Aidan Moffat, Josie Long and Ross Sutherland

24 Aug 2011

While everyone might know about the Edinburgh Art Festival, a series of collaborations have been quietly reflecting the works exhibited in the various exhibitions around the city. Suzy Glass (behind the creative social network Central Station) and Angie…

Futureproof 2011: New photography in Scotland

Cross section of work by recent graduates

24 Aug 2011

As the third in a series of exhibitions initiated by Street Level Gallery, Futureproof profiles a cross section of work by graduates from the five Scottish university photography departments. The pictures on show are taken by nimble-fingered light…

Interview: John Byrne

Painter and playwright at 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival

24 Aug 2011

What came first – the art or the writing? It must have been the drawing and the art, because my mother used to tell people that I was drawing in my pram. We have to take her word for it – she was a very honest woman. Do you hold writing and art in…

Smile

Feeble collection riffing off ill-conceived ideas

24 Aug 2011

Between the Spangles wrapper psychedelia of its poster to the feeble collection of art in the gallery, Smile does nothing to live up to its name. Riffing off ill-conceived ideas honed from (a misunderstanding of) the Fluxus movement and the writings of…

John Byrne: Moonlight and Music

Major exhibition of works by much-loved Scottish artist

17 Aug 2011

So recent are some of the pieces in this show – timed to coincide with the launch of a biography of the artist by Lund Humphries – that self-portrait ‘Chop Suey’ and Byrne’s children’s book Donald & Benoit: A Story of a Cat and a Boy arrived close to…

Richard Demarco and Joseph Beuys

An art world friendship under a Scottish sky

17 Aug 2011

A single rose can make a garden; a single friend can make a world. Writer, artist and philosopher Richard Demarco’s friendship with the humanistic artist Joseph Beuys was something special. These two passionate, occasionally obtuse men were drawn to…

Mystics or Rationalists?

Elegant conceptual works bend associations of the ordinary

17 Aug 2011

Stealing the show, Susan Hiller’s new levitation works are exemplary of the conceit at the heart of this group exhibition. Having infused conceptual and minimalist strategies with the influence of psychoanalysis and pop culture since the late 1960s…

Peace at Last!

Photorealist style of Kate Davis focuses on political history with feminist narratives

16 Aug 2011

This small collection of works by Kate Davis is a response to the Glasgow Museums’ collection. The show focuses both on political history with feminist narratives and the archiving process mixed in with her own interventions. In the first room is the…

Interview: Hiroshi Sugimoto

Renowned photographer on his EAF exhibition

16 Aug 2011

Is this your first visit to Edinburgh? I did pass through here once in the late 90s. I was shooting seascapes around the Scottish coast. Which wasn’t so successful: mostly, I saw many oil towers, so I couldn’t get clear seascapes. I thought it was a…

Early Relativity: Karen Cunningham and Zara Idelson

Good pairing of Glasgow-based artists

16 Aug 2011

Every year for their summer show The Duchy pairs a recent graduate with a more established artist. This year Glasgow School of Art graduate Zara Idelson shows paintings and interventions alongside the work of Glasgow-based Karen…

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…

Carmen Sylva

Established artists take on a new and exciting identity

11 Aug 2011

A procession of odd assemblages punctuates the centre of Sierra Metro’s exhibition space. They are Katharina Stoever and Barbara Wolff’s latest artistic response to Peles, a late 18th Century Romanian castle that has inspired their practice for over six…

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…

Live Your Questions Now

Group show featuring Alasdair Gray, Ana Jotta, Colin McCahon, Rainer Maria Rilke and Sam Ainsley

10 Aug 2011

As a triumphant call to the graces of old age and experience Live Your Questions Now is a survey show reacting to the art world’s obsessive youth fads. The show’s title is derived from a letter seeking guidance from poet Rainer Maria Rilke: ‘live your…

First of the Summer Wine

Group show featuring Joan Eardley, Vanessa Bell, George Leslie Hunter and Donald Clark

10 Aug 2011

Now at their new location on West Regent Street, Cyril Gerber’s annual summer show, First of the Summer Wine, is full of variety, placing artists from different generations alongside one another. A mix of modern British and Scottish masters includes…

Interview: Jeremy Millar on exhibition Mystics or Rationalists?

Artist discusses his contribution to Ingleby Edinburgh Art Festival show

10 Aug 2011

How far do you agree with Sol LeWitt’s comment that ‘conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists’? I think I’d tend to agree: they’re certainly rather more mystics than rationalists. Art isn’t rational, but it can be mystical. What is…

Tamsyn Challenger: 400 Women

Stunning artistic memorial to victims of gender violence

8 Aug 2011

What unites the collection of heterogeneous portraits in 400 Women is the fate of each subject depicted. All are the victims of rape, abduction and murder, devastating crimes which have taken place on the Mexican border region of Ciudad Juàrez. In…

Katri Walker: North West

Intriguing exploration of Scottish/Wild West links

8 Aug 2011

This triptych of work by Edinburgh-born artist Katri Walker recasts the landscape of Scotland as the wilderness of the American old west, quite literally in the case of the titular central work. Projected over three connected screens, the rocky cliffs…

Ingrid Calame

Water water everywhere with only a doodle to drink

5 Aug 2011

A river runs through Ingrid Calame’s work. But this river has been drained and all that remains are detritus and old stains. Somewhere between Google Earth screen grabs, weighty childhood nature books with their own illustrative key codes and fey…

David Mach: Precious Light

Edinburgh Art Festival exhibition of biblical proportions by Fife-born artist

5 Aug 2011

Without doubt, Methil-born artist David Mach’s work ‘Golgotha’ will stand out as the defining image from the artistic strand of this year’s Edinburgh Festival. Three enormous figures of threaded steel nailed to metallic crosses, which take up the entire…

Anton Henning: Interieur No. 493

Curious and bemusing conceptual art salon at 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival

5 Aug 2011

If, as critic and writer Cyril Connolly once noted, ‘vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of life’ German artist Anton Henning might just have halitosis. Henning’s first solo show in Scotland is just about as curious and bemusing an exhibition as you…

Lineage: Michael Craig-Martin, Ian Davenport and Julian Opie

Edinburgh Art Festival 2010 - Printmaking, but not as we know it

5 Aug 2011

Drip, drip, drip go the variations on a theme that form the quartet of works culled from Ian Davenport’s ‘Etched Puddle’ series, in which assorted rainbow-arrayed, candy-striped, multi-coloured streams trickle down into a similarly hued liquid carpet at…

Interview: US artist Ingrid Calame

Transferring transfers marks and cracks from ground outside to gallery walls

3 Aug 2011

‘This is it!’ exclaims US artist Ingrid Calame, waving towards a radiant tabletop awash with transparent sacks of bright pigments, a sea of reds, pinks, blues and greens. She’s referring to a new drawing based on tracings plucked from the cement…

Interview: Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan

Artists talk about The Indirect Exchange of Uncertain Value exhibition

3 Aug 2011

It sounds like the (thankfully unpublished) wheezy plotlines to one of Anthony Buckeridge’s Jennings... adventures. Posh Edinburgh private school – one time cradle to dastardly turncoat bullies – gets taken over by bohemian artists with a hidden agenda.

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…

Robert Rauschenberg: Botanical Vaudeville

Sparkling post-industrial dance on gleaming surfaces

3 Aug 2011

Inverleith House has long carved a niche for itself as a champion of late 20th century American icons, and for the gallery’s British Art Show contribution has gathered up a grab-bag of 37 works made between 1982 and 1998 by Abstract Expressionism’s…

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…

Elizabeth Blackadder

Brilliant retrospective of work by one of Scotland’s major artists

3 Aug 2011

Elizabeth Blackadder is a Dame, a Royal Academician and arguably Scotland’s most popular female painter and printmaker. A major retrospective of her work at Scotland’s biggest gallery space was only ever going to draw sighs of resignation from art snobs…

Sounds of Fringe - Stream and record audio from the Edinburgh Festival

Soundcloud-based app for iPhone and Android documents 2011 Fringe

3 Aug 2011

New collaborative project, Sounds of Fringe allows anyone to post or stream audio from anywhere in the capital throughout the Festival, the fruits of which will be tagged and appear on an online map. Like all Soundcloud files, you can add your own…

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…

Profile: Gina Glover

The photographer of military landscapes discusses her background and future

21 Jul 2011

What made you want to be a photographer? I had trained as a painter in the 60s but I found this a very isolating activity. I realised I wished to communicate and collaborate with people. In the 1980s I jointly founded Photo Co Op, which became the…

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…

Profile: Paul Mowat

This is Central Station

21 Jul 2011

Paul Mowat is predominantly a figurative painter, his concern being with the human condition and how we live. He initially studied graphic design and printmaking, and after a brief spell in London as what he describes as ‘a very bad graphic designer’ he…

Nakedness and nudity at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Naked Busker and lap dancing photography exhibition among highlights

20 Jul 2011

It may get the moral minority’s g-string in a twist, but nudity and Edinburgh go hand in hand. Here are some naked highlights. Pot of Dreams - Jannica Honey & Holly Davidson Photographic Exhibition. The multifaceted human aspects of Edinburgh’s lap…

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…

Artist Martin Creed replaces Edinburgh steps with marble from around world

The Turner Prize winner transforms the Scotsman Steps

6 Jul 2011

Now in its eighth year, the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) has done wonders in raising the profile of the capital's rich assortment of galleries while showcasing an eye-watering array of works by international artists. No stranger to Edinburgh, Turner…