Visual art

John Cage: Every Day is a Good Day

A testament to Cage’s philosophy on art and sound

24 Feb 2011

With a title derived from a 300-year-old Zen Buddhist proverb Every Day is a Good Day is a testament to Cage’s philosophy on art and sound. As previously exercised by the curators at the BALTIC Centre, Newcastle, the show’s large collection of some 50…

Jeremy Millar on new exhibition Resemblances, Sympathies and Other Acts

Celebrated artist on how the past informs his new exhibition

24 Feb 2011

Jeremy Millar has just been listening to PJ Harvey’s new album prior to talking about his forthcoming show at the CCA in Glasgow. Somehow the other-worldly, transcendent qualities of this most hypnotic of singer-songwriters fits in with Millar’s…

Jean-Marc Bustamante: Dead Calm

Toulouse born artist’s debut Scottish show

24 Feb 2011

Toulouse born artist Jean-Marc Bustamante’s debut Scottish show carries with it the weight of Dickens’ sentiment that, ‘There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.’ Bustamante’s ‘thing’ is incongruity in technique…

Craig Murray-Orr Ingleby show a hymn to power of nature

New Zealand artist's work suggests an unspoilt land before colonialism

24 Feb 2011

There are many painted works in this new exhibition by Kiwi artist Craig Murray-Orr, but the first item that catches the attention is the large rifle mounted on the wall. It’s not a rifle at all, but a mahogany carving in the rough but unmistakeable…

No Wave filmmaker Vivienne Dick on 1970s New York - interview

The influential filmmaker behind She Had Her Gun All Ready reminisces

18 Feb 2011

List: Could you tell us a bit about when you started making your early films like She Had Her Gun All Ready and the scene at the time? VD: Well, it was editing and everything at home where I was living on the Lower East Side and I didn't think when I…

Craig Murray-Orr documents self-imposed exile in the wilderness

New Zealand-born artist captures magnificent isolation

18 Feb 2011

There’s a sense of magnificent isolation as you go walkabout in New Zealand-born Craig Murray-Orr’s first show for a decade, that says much about self-imposed exile in the wilderness. Both Henry David Thoreau’s novel Walden and the sprawl of Jack…

Fruitmarket fêted Jean-Marc Bustamante exhibition Dead Calm

Documentary snapshots of back roads and deserted Ballardian swimming pools

16 Feb 2011

As a large-scale exhibition of his work comes to the Fruitmarket fêted artist Jean-Marc Bustamante talks to Neil Cooper about his need to get out of the studio You won’t find many people in Jean-Marc Bustamante’s work. If you can see the wood for the…

Why Edinburgh remains unrivalled as a festival city

A huge number and variety of festivals take place each year

16 Feb 2011

In 1961, a theatre director made a proposal. It was his opinion that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was getting too big. It would be much better, he said, ‘if only ten halls were licensed’. Nobody listened. Had the director been able to travel…

New Territories festival centres on work by Black Market International

Performance art festival in Glasgow and Aberdeen

11 Feb 2011

One thing the annual New Territories festival has never done is stand still. This year, the longstanding National Review of Live Art may have vanished, but the newly branded This Is Performance Art strand has risen from its ashes with an ambitious…

Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz: Rape Me

The new exhibition from Berlin-born artist’s exposes instinctive nature of work

11 Feb 2011

The work of German artist Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz, says the press release accompanying his latest show in Glasgow, concerns itself at least partially with ‘the aesthetics of destruction’. It’s hard to ascertain from the limited contact The List has…

Provocative exhibition from Rosemarie Trockel both haunting and unnerving

Drawings, collages and book drafts makes for powerful show

11 Feb 2011

This provocative exhibition of Rosemarie Trockel’s works on paper is at once haunting and unnerving; the German artist’s handling of dark and sometimes uncomfortable subject matter successfully challenging the viewer through the blurring of reality and…

Artist Laura Duncan explores themes in sexuality

Aberdeen artist aims to show sex in a more positive manner

11 Feb 2011

Laura Duncan is currently working towards her BA in Photographic and Electronic Media at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. At the moment she is exploring themes in sexuality and how to show sex in a more positive manner. She is also interested in…

Glasgow’s Tramway among winners at 2010 GaGA Awards

National Theatre of Scotland also win at Glasgow audience development awards

4 Feb 2011

Thursday’s GaGAs 2010 highlighted some of the outstanding achievements of Scottish cultural organisations over the past year. The awards are part of organisers Culture Sparks’ ongoing endeavour to encourage intelligence and innovation throughout…

Alternative Valentine's Day presents and ideas

Four unique and romantic ways to celebrate this year

26 Jan 2011

Being a List reader you’ve had the infinite good taste to pick a partner who can’t be doing with the corny hearts, flowers and factory-line V-Day dining experience we’re sold as ‘romance’. All well and good, but how on earth do you celebrate February…

The Inventors of Tradition profiles traditional garments and social histories

Exhibition charts history of textile industry in Scotland

26 Jan 2011

That ubiquitous ‘Scotland with Style’ byline invented by city marketing in Glasgow gets renewed historical validation in this exhibition that is many things woven into one. Inventors of Tradition is an archival show of the Scottish textiles industry…

Dirk Bell - Powerful exhibition plays with imagery of magick and mysticism

Works invoke old-fashioned ideas of belief systems, ritual, myth and healing

26 Jan 2011

There is something otherworldly about the energy that Dirk Bell has conjured up in this space: a droning sound reverberates, the inorganic steel structures are sanded down to a holographic shine, and devoid of human presence, technology will sustain…

Seeing Ian Hamilton Finlay's work indoors proves claustrophobic

Exhibition of work by polymath behind Little Sparta garden is hymn to nature

26 Jan 2011

There’s something slightly claustrophobic about seeing Ian Hamilton Finlay’s work indoors. As anyone who’s basked in the glories of the radical polymath’s Little Sparta garden in Dunsyre near Edinburgh will be aware, Hamilton Finlay was so at one with…

Artist Hanna Tuulikki - From T-shirt designs for The Wire to free-folk

Sussex-born Anglo-Finn soundtracked Simon Yuill Stackwalker

26 Jan 2011

Hanna Tuulikki’s first love is to sing. Her second love is to draw. The Sussex-born Anglo-Finn thus juggles her time as artist, illustrator and musician in Glasgow where she stayed after studying environmental art at the GSA. Alongside still or…

Rosemarie Trockel exhibition set for Edinburgh's Talbot Rice gallery

Major show from influential German contemporary of Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman

14 Jan 2011

Rosemarie Trockel’s creative output is as diverse as it is prolific. She is a highly regarded visual artist whose work has been showcased around the globe. In earlier years she teamed up with fellow feminist voices in Cologne to establish a…

Jonathan Horowitz: Minimalist Works from the Holocaust Museum

Colourful response that lends a quietly inclusive wit to its world-changing intent

14 Jan 2011

Don’t be fooled by the apparent dryness of the title of this major solo show by one of the most provocative American artists of the last 20 years. Rather than mimic the worthy but dull, opaque works that populate the United States Holocaust Museum…

Marc Camille Chaimowicz

Journey of Parisian artist from the punk performance early work to lyrical, introspective and politi

14 Jan 2011

Echoing the words of his hero Gustave Flaubert, Marc Camille Chaimowicz’s first solo exhibition in Scotland is testimony to the notion that ‘Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; only faith and freedom.’ Parisian Chaimowicz’s art shares…

Borders-based artist James Hugonin's network of coloured grids

Quietly insistent solidity and strength to Hugonin’s minimalism

12 Jan 2011

Music and movement is at the heart of this display of eight works by the Borders-based artist to mark his 60th birthday. Identical in scale and scope, each canvas painstakingly maps out an interlocking network of coloured brick-shaped grids that dance…

National Galleries of Scotland to unveil collection of Jeff Koons' works in Artist Rooms

The American neo-pop artist's crazy career milestones

3 Jan 2011

As the National Galleries unveils the collection of Jeff Koons’ works in Artist Rooms, we consider some of the American neo-pop artist’s crazy career milestones 1: The Equilibrium Series The spiritual offspring of his idol Andy Warhol Koons first…

Sophie Macpherson solo show at Sorcha Dallas

The artist on her fascination with live performance

3 Jan 2011

You get the impression Sophie Macpherson likes to keep moving, both creatively and personally. This certainly seems to be the motivation behind the Aylesbury-born GSA-trained artist’s forthcoming solo show of texts, posters, a video and a 16-mm film at…

Common Guild showcases a selection of works by English artist Tacita Dean

YBA-associated artist's recent work is a splice of German and British cultures

3 Jan 2011

In a superbly attractive autumnal exhibition, The Common Guild is showcasing a selection of works by English artist Tacita Dean. Though associated with the generation of YBAs, and once nominated for the Turner Prize, Dean’s practice is of a different…

A Little Bit of Magic Realised

Common theme of the natural world in work from Anna Atkins, Garry Fabian Miller and Susan Derges

3 Jan 2011

‘Cameraless’ photography is one of those seeming contradictions in terms that seems intended to deliberately confuse. However, the curiosity inspired by the theme gives way to wonder as you explore the immediate and vivid world depicted in this…

Revealing the Invisible: The Art of Stansfield / Hooykaas from Different Perspectives

Time-based work of the late Scottish artist and her Dutch collaborator

3 Jan 2011

The time-based work of the late Scottish artist Elsa Stansfield and her Dutch collaborator Madelon Hooykaas oscillates between the terrains of the arts and sciences. In an overview of their practice, with works spanning three decades, the CCA showcases…

Childish Things

Fruitmarket Gallery, until Sun 23 Jan 2010

23 Dec 2010

Installation Childish Things Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 23 Jan David Hopkins, curator of Childish Things, has created a wonderfully subversive tribute to childhood. The title is deceiving: the imagery and atmosphere of this exhibition…

Interference with Twigs

Finely executed exhibition brings together work spanning world and generations

22 Dec 2010

Like a casting of the runes, Interference with Twigs brings together the work of artists from four corners of the world across two generations to weave together new interpretations and enter into dialogue like old friends in this finely executed…

The best visual art exhibitions in Scotland 2010

Martin Creed, Christoph Büchel, Alasdair Gray and Julie Roberts

16 Dec 2010

Martin Creed: Things A playful, humorous and beautifully installed exhibition by Turner Prize-winning artist Creed. Seventeen of the artist’s works were on show under the wonderfully vague title of Things, including piled-up boxes, pot plants, nails…

Glasgow artist collective The Mutual showcases work

Calum Thom, Tawny Kerr, Ralph Mackenzie and Richard Davies

16 Dec 2010

The Mutual artist collective was formed in 2009 by four Glasgow School of Art Fine Art graduates in an attempt to stave off postgraduate malaise. Two years later, with a 200-strong member base, they have invited their artists to participate in a…

Interference with Twigs shows work from four artists

Audrey Capel Doray, Hanna Sandin, Nicolas Party and Lotte Gertz

16 Dec 2010

Like a casting of the runes, Interference with Twigs brings together the work of artists from four corners of the world across two generations to weave together new interpretations and enter into dialogue like old friends in this finely executed…

Central Station: Fraser Sim

Artist uses digital processes combined with handcrafted techniques

16 Dec 2010

Fraser Sim graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1999, winning the Royal Scottish Academy Student Prize for Printmaking in the same year. Having worked in the UK and internationally as a graphic designer and web designer for several years he…

Bobby Niven: Hermit’s Castle, Chez Galip

Glasgow-based artist's film diptych with pitch perfect cinematic aesthetic

23 Nov 2010

Film diptych Hermit’s Castle and Chez Galip brings together two geologically extreme landscapes in which two characters, an architect in Scotland and a potter in Turkey, have erected idiosyncratic structures. Hermit’s Castle journeys to cold, austere…

Lydia Corry and Caroline Walker: Love is an Ocular Sickness

Different approaches to exploring history of representing woman

23 Nov 2010

The symptoms of mental illness have often been used to describe the state of being in love. Plato discussed love as a serious mental disease. Lydia Corry and Caroline Walker established the concept of their show by rummaging through his writings on love…

Myths and Legends: From the Ancient to the Modern

Printmakers all-you-can-eat group show overwhelms but maintains interest

23 Nov 2010

Myths and Legends is an all-you-can-eat buffet of printmaking encompassing a vast range of techniques. Enticing images creep out into the stairwell, and the main rooms are filled to the brim with ever more imaginative takes on the theme, including a…

Martin Campbell - Central Station

Glasgow artist's workshops encourage instinctive and quick decision making

23 Nov 2010

Originally from Benbecula in the Western Isles, Martin Campbell now lives in Glasgow and is currently in his final year of the product design course at Edinburgh College of Art. As part of his final year project he is looking at ways of getting people…

Gray Stuff: Designs for Books and Posters - Alasdair Gray interview

The Glasgow polymath on expensive art books and why he’s banned from buying flowers and cooking

19 Nov 2010

Scotland’s cherished polymath shares some insights on expensive art books, Walter Scott and why he’s banned from buying flowers and cooking… First record you ever bought My sister and I had seen the Laurence Olivier film Hamlet and we bought the…

Childish Things explores surrealist use of childhood themes in art

Edinburgh Fruitmarket exhibition features works by Louise Bourgeois, Susan Hiller and Jeff Koons

15 Nov 2010

From St Paul’s assertion of adult intent to the Corinthians to Rousseau’s call for clemency towards its fundamental freedoms (‘childhood is the sleep of reason’), notions of childhood and childish behaviour have long fascinated and divided artists. To…

Blue and Silver: Whistler and the Thames

Superbly executed exhibition documents London in the 1860s

15 Nov 2010

This superbly executed exhibition builds a narrative around a major work in James McNeill Whistler’s oeuvre. ‘Blue and Silver’ depicts the old Battersea Bridge as it stands tall against the ethereal night-time skyline of the river. Brush strokes of a…

Yo! Picasso: Beside Picasso / Picasso’s Women

Ramshorn Theatre presents two plays focusing on artist's turbulent life

15 Nov 2010

Picasso is taken out of the gallery and on to the stage as the Ramshorn presents two plays focusing on the turbulent life behind the canvas. Yo! Picasso! opens with the artist’s death, as he enters into a state of limbo and is met by Sabartés, his long…

Social Documents: The Ethics of Encounter Part 1

Film documents artist’s two-year journey across the Democratic Republic of the Congo

15 Nov 2010

Screened as part of Stills’ The Ethics of Encounter programme, which comprises exhibitions, screenings and workshops exploring artists’ use of documentary processes, Renzo Martens’ feature-length filmwork Episode III Enjoy Poverty (run ended) is a work…

Revealing the Invisible: The Art of Stansfield / Hooykaas from Different Perspectives

Exhibition represents spiritual homecoming for Dutch artist Madelon Hooykaas

15 Nov 2010

When Revealing the Invisible opens at Glasgow’s CCA and Street Level, it will be a spiritual homecoming for Madelon Hooykaas. While the CCA may be unrecognisable from its origins as all-purpose arts lab the Third Eye Centre, it was here in 1974 that the…

Central Station - Enda O’Donoghue

Irish artist explores themes found in photographs found online

15 Nov 2010

Enda O’Donoghue is an Irish artist who has been living and working in Berlin since 2002. He originally studied computer programming before changing to visual art and has worked professionally as a web designer, internet developer and in various dotcom…

Guests from Designers Republic, EIDOS and Pictoplasma among highlights of NEoN 2010

North East of North arts festival secures Scotland's reputation as centre of digital excellence

3 Nov 2010

Not for nothing does The List frequently refer to Scotland as a centre of digital excellence: the success of games developers, including Rockstar, institutions such as Abertay University and now the return of digital arts festival NEoN, all show a…

Tommy Grace, Ged Quinn and Tony Swain: Restore Us and Regain

3 Nov 2010

Taking its title from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, a warped and windswept romanticism pervades this triple bill of work. With four works apiece from Grace and Swain – both already established in these parts – and three from Quinn, each artist creates…

George Barber: The Long Commute/Jaygo Bloom: Arcade

Joint DCA show references video games, club culture and scratch video scene

3 Nov 2010

Club culture is the ultimate creative hub. Beyond – but probably because of – its dazed and confused hedonism, the dance-floor and chill-out room are inspirational eye- and ear-openers. Both artists in these parallel shows are direct descendents of such…

Liana Moran's work explores fear of not being 'connected

Artists uses notion of Cyborg to examine dependency upon electronic devices

3 Nov 2010

Liana Moran graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2010 with a BA Honours in Drawing and Painting. Her current work looks into modern technology within mass communication: she’s interested in the notion that people nowadays have a fear of not being…

Glasgow experimental music festival Instal makes 10th outing

Bill includes MattFlorian Hecker, guitarist Neil Davidson and French improviser Matthieu Saladin

2 Nov 2010

Seekers of easy listening music, turn away now. Instal’s exploration of ‘brave, new music’ aims to stimulate your brain, and your ears. Neil Cooper explains further

The events from Scottish history that shaped the nation's character

Jacobites exhibition reveals source of sentimentality in Scottish psyche

27 Oct 2010

Rebels with a Cause: The Jacobites and the Global Imagination exhibition reveals origin of Scottish character’s tendency for the romantic, mournful and sentimental.