Visual Art

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…

Picture this - World Press Photo

Festival of Politics

22 Jul 2008

From soldiers to skiers, featuring death and dresses, the World Press Photo exhibition captures life at its extremes. David Pollock views the cream of this year’s selection and discusses life through a lens.

No more heroes - graphic novels

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

The Book Festival is once again acknowledging the rapid expansion in graphic novels. Henry Northmore chats to a number of comic book guys (and girl) to ask what the future may hold for the superhero While graphic novels may be still be a minority…

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…

Quiet revolution - Scottish Impressionism

17 Jul 2008

Liz Shannon considers the enduring appeal of work by the ground-breaking French Impressionists and the Scots they inspired

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Kenny Hunter: A Shout in the Street

17 Jul 2008

Following the popular success of such major works as Citizen Firefighter and Girl with Rucksack , Edinburgh-born Kenny Hunter returns to showcase his works in Scotland after a hiatus of over four years. Both new and reworked sculptural pieces, as well…

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…

Visual Art - List picks

17 Jul 2008

Mark Neville With Fancy Pictures (which features Neville’s new 16mm film and audio-slide installation of still photographic work) the artist captures 21st century Bute in wonderful living, breathing colour. See review, page 87. Mount Stuart, Isle Of…

Found

3 Jul 2008

ART/MUSIC INSTALLATION Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Sat 21 Jun It was the all-you-can-eat buffet of line-ups. There were robots playing bamboo instruments, dancing in the sculpture garden, tai chi and the chance to…

Altered States of Paint

3 Jul 2008

According to clichéd legend, if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there. The artists taking part in Altered States of Paint at DCA who were around during that heady decade were still in their wide-eyed infancy. The ones who weren’t are…

Edinburgh Art Festival announces programme

Where the art is

3 Jul 2008

Another week, another festival launches. Hot on the heels of the Fringe, the EIF and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, relative newbie the Edinburgh Art Festival last week laid out its stall, boasting a roster of art glitterati from a 20-year…

Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945 (Group Show)

3 Jul 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 31 Aug The years between the two World Wars marked an incredibly innovative period in the development of Modernist photography. Today the photographic image is so ubiquitous that it barely merits comment…

GoMA Family Festival 2008

3 Jul 2008

FUN DAY Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Sat 5 Jul Messing around with paint, glue and glitter is fun at any age, so why should kids have all the fun? Although aimed primarily at 3–12-year-olds, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Family Festival…

Haptic

3 Jul 2008

DESIGN The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Mon 29 Sep High design and its pioneering spirit are taken on a Seuss-like tangent in this enjoyable, inventive and very silly exhibition. According to curator Kenya Hara’s notes ‘haptic’ means ‘relating or…

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…

Mladen Stilinovi?: On Money, Zeroes, etc

3 Jul 2008

MIXED MEDIA CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 19 Jul According to the Croatian artist Mladen Stilinovic, there is no art without laziness. A series of photographs entitled ‘Artist at Work’ shows his theory in action: Stilinovic lying in bed, looking melancholy…

Nicky Bird: Beneath the Surface/Hidden Place

3 Jul 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 20 Jul For a project which corrals so many amateur photographers and their family photos to share co-creative billing with the artist, its unifying theme is acutely realised. This show is about…

Radiohead Nude remix film finds audience

3 Jul 2008

A Glasgow School of Art student has become a YouTube sensation. James Houston featured a remix of the Radiohead single 'Nude' from their album In Rainbows in a four minute video, 'Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)', as part of his Degree Show. Houston has…

Three Blows

3 Jul 2008

PERFORMANCE St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 5 & Sun 6 Jul As the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Scotland, St Cecilia’s Hall is in possession of unique acoustic properties. St Cecilia, of course, was the patron saint of church music, whose…

Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008

3 Jul 2008

PHOTOGRAHY National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 21 Sep Any exhibition that begins with an Ashkenazi Jewish songwriter (Irving Berlin) and ends with a sloaney celebrity culture muse (Diana, Princess of Wales) is worth a peek. Following New…

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show

19 Jun 2008

MIXED MEDIA Edinburgh College of Art, until Tue 24 Jun Information overload, autonomy, inquiry, provocation and dissent. Not themes as such, but rather loose strands in the willfully disparate expanse that makes up this class of 2008…

Glasgow School of Art MFA Degree Show (Group Show)

19 Jun 2008

MIXED MEDIA Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 22 Jun While locating good work by up-and-coming artists at an undergraduate show can feel like you’re searching for a needle in a haystack, at the Glasgow School of Art MFA show, as might be expected, the work…

Harry Smith Anthology Remixed

19 Jun 2008

When American song-collector, artist, ethno-musicologist and experimental filmmaker Harry Smith released The Anthology Of American Folk Music in 1952, it was a labour of love which had a huge influence on the 1950s so-called Folk revival. Without this…

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…

Jo Spence: Self Portraits

19 Jun 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sun 16 Nov Working class artist, photographer, Marxist, feminist, teacher and publisher Jo Spence was an extraordinary talent. Issue-based but always accessible, her work can be seen as the progenitor…

Michael Stumpf: Glöckchen Whiplash

19 Jun 2008

MIXED MEDIA SCULTURAL INSTALLATION Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Sat 5 Jul There are two identical wall paintings, apparently of sunsets, in Michael Stumpf’s new exhibition. Why two sunsets, and no sunrise? Part of the strange mix of disparate…

X (Group show)

19 Jun 2008

MIXED MEDIA Recoat, Glasgow, until Wed 2 Jul The title of this group show in the intimate space of Glasgow’s Recoat shop-come-gallery is a reference to the venue’s tenth show, but it also suggests a lot about the work on display. There’s no apparent…

Leith School of Art announces end of year exhibition

16 Jun 2008

The End of Year Exhibition at Leith School of Art will open on Friday 20th June. Now in its 20th year, the Leith School of Art continues to actively promote and encourage artistic talent to the highest level. The School enjoys an excellent reputation…

Vanity Fair Portraits

5 Jun 2008

We didn’t need Princess Diana to die to know we live in a celebrity-obsessed age. The love/hate relationship between the people and the famous is now more fraught than ever. Fame has never been so easy to come by, but we seem to take even greater joy in…

Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945

5 Jun 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Jun–Sun 31 Aug The Dean’s new exhibition argues that across Central Europe between the wars the driving force of modernity in art could be found in the field of photography. Artists and amateur practitioners…

Haptic (Group show)

5 Jun 2008

MIXED MEDIA (DESIGN) The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Wed 18 Jun–Mon 29 Sep Kenya Hara, from Tokyo’s Nippon Design Museum, has suggested a new model for design: ‘Whilst affirming scientific progress, I would like to propose that we use not technology, but the…

Paul Rooney

5 Jun 2008

VIDEO The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 12 Jul Liverpool-based artist Paul Rooney’s two video works on show at the Collective Gallery include the newly commissioned ‘Lost High Street’ (2008), which draws on his experiences as an art student…

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…

Lucy Skaer

5 Jun 2008

DRAWING, SCULPTURE & FILM Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Wed 9 Jul Looking at Skaer’s black drawings is like watching someone trapped under a thick sheet of ice. Admittedly, the likelihood of ever having witnessed such a death is rare, but the…

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…

Proposals invited for public art in Portobello

3 Jun 2008

The ‘Big Things on the Beach’ Public Art Group has announced a call for proposals for three public art works which will be located on the beach front of Portobello. In 2007, Wonder, by artist Hill Jephson Robb, saw the construction of 3 giant pyramids…

Three Harbours Arts Festival

22 May 2008

We’re all about the community arts festivals this week, it seems. Summer is finally coming, and we can’t think of a nicer way to spend a sunny weekend than tracking down art in unusual places. So, in East Lothian, the main premise behind the Three…

Lucy Skaer

22 May 2008

As an artist who once claimed to have secreted moth and butterfly larvae into the Old Bailey and reportedly left a scorpion and a diamond lying side by side on an Amsterdam pavement, convention is not something we would expect of Lucy Skaer. While the…

Peter Liversidge and Fischli + Weiss

22 May 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 31 May–Sat 7 Jun If you notice smoke coming out of Edinburgh’s Ingleby Gallery towards the end of the month, you should probably investigate before you phone the fire brigade: it might just be…