Visual art

Alex Dordoy

Overarching sense of the mutability of physical objects

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…

Collins Gallery curator Laura Hamilton picks her favourite exhibitions

Selections from the gallery’s 40-year history

As Strathclyde University’s Collins Gallery prepares to unveil its final exhibition, curator Laura Hamilton picks her favourite exhibitions from the gallery’s 40-year history Impossible to select only five top shows from over 250 curated for the…

Roger Ackling

Assemblage of garden tools from alumnus of late 1960s St Martin’s School of Art scene

It’s hard, at first, to see just what Roger Ackling has created here. An alumnus of the late 1960s St Martin’s School of Art scene that also produced Richard Long, Ackling’s ideas of what constitutes sculpture are unique to say the least. In this case…

Central Station: Laura Barnard

UK-based illustrator specialising in detailed, quirky cityscapes, intricate patterns and maps

Laura Barnard is a UK-based illustrator who specialises in detailed, quirky cityscapes, intricate patterns and quirky maps. She’s lived in Edinburgh (twice) and is still very fond of the city despite now living down south. The combination of a…

Roger Ackling - interview

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

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

‘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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘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

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

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…