Visual art and David Pollock

Edvard Munch: Graphic Works from the Gunderson Collection

Extended introduction to troubled Norwegian painter

23 May 2012

Perhaps the greatest surprise for casual viewers of this high-profile new exhibition from the Scottish National Galleries is the discovery that Norwegian painter Edvard Munch had a whole catalogue of work besides ‘The Scream’. One of the most famous…

Tony Swain: Drowned Dust, Sudden Word

Using materials of newsprint as starting point for abstract painting canvasses

23 May 2012

There’s a deliberately seductive art to the design of a newspaper page, but only within the uniform rigour of the reader’s expectations. Northern Irish artist Tony Swain subverts these norms by using the materials of newsprint as the starting point for…

Karla Black

'Giant tiramisu' is breathtaking and ludicrous in equal measure

25 Apr 2012

Between Karla Black’s work and its viewer, the tension is unbearable. Rarely can inert sculptural work have exerted such a gravitational pull upon its audience, and the effect of ‘art vertigo’ it inspires just can’t be understood unless it’s seen live.

Lorna Macintyre: Midnight Scenes & Other Works

Intriguing and apparently unrelated pieces across various media

25 Apr 2012

An exhibition which speaks most eloquently only when its creator’s intentions have been read and understood, Midnight Scenes & Other Works at first appears to be a series of intriguing but unrelated pieces across various media. There’s a video work…

Emory Douglas: Seize the Time

Imagery of Black Panther party’s minister for culture still high in insurrectionary power

25 Apr 2012

The imagery of the Black Panther party’s first and only minister for culture has lost none of its insurrectionary power over the last half-century. At a time when the Arab Spring and Occupy movements have reintroduced a generation to often violent…

New Print Generation

Edinburgh Printmakers exhibition featuring Rachel Maclean, Patrizio Belcampo and Lyndsay Gauld

17 Apr 2012

Just in time for Degree Show season, Edinburgh Printmakers has chosen to hold its own mini student exhibition – a selection of emerging graduates from the four major colleges who use printmaking techniques as the basis for their work. As with every…

Alec Finlay show at Edinburgh's Ingleby Gallery

Quintet of ‘poem-objects’ reflects ideas of memory through biography

21 Mar 2012

To subtitle mention of the artist with the fact that he’s the son of Ian Hamilton Finlay is to run down his own acute artistic sensibility without cause. Yet it’s inescapable here, because this quintet of ‘poem-objects’ reflects ideas of memory through…

Alison Turnbull

Constrained pieces exploring ideas of order and chaos

21 Mar 2012

Order and chaos, Alison Turnbull’s work implies, are both simple functions of human perspective, with her seemingly very precisely constrained pieces actually subject to no more than the artist’s own arbitrary designs for them. In large part that’s a…

Roger Ackling

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

17 Feb 2012

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth: Staged

Edinburgh-based artists stage a cultural land grab from August’s invasion

5 Aug 2010

Entered by way of a curtained-off doorway and presented in a compact room whose pillar-effect cornices form a kind of proscenium arch, this collaborative show by Edinburgh-based artists Coleman and Hogarth sets out its stall as a reflection upon the…

John Squire: Nefertiti

Henderson Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu 19 Aug

14 Jul 2010

Ex-Stone Roses guitarist John Squire describes this collection of work – his first in Scotland – as a ‘silent music project’, which clearly plays upon his desire to not return to making music and certainly not to go back to his old band. You could argue…

The Pineapple Chunks head up ECA Annual Summer Revel

10 Jun 2010

If ever there was a party in Edinburgh’s calendar that deserves the term legendary, the Revel is it. Everyone knows about Hogmanay, the Festival and even Beltane, but Edinburgh College of Art’s traditional end of term blowout tends to be both truly…