Visual Art

Neville Rae

3 Oct 2008

For want of a little creative breathing space, new gallery partnership Sierra Metro has bravely shunned the inner-city Edinburgh gallery scene. Directors Janine Sproule and Martin Minton have appropriated a disused warehouse in the North of Edinburgh…

In the Eye of the Storm

2 Oct 2008

The first half of the last century was a period of uproar and turmoil for nearly all of Europe, but few nations went through as much tumult as Hungary. Devastated by the first world war, a Bolshevik revolution, a subsequent right wing backlash…

Autoconstruccion

2 Oct 2008

Mexico’s Abraham Cruzvillegas has spent the last six months in residency at the CCA and Cove Park developing a show that is more than just an exhibition. As well as his trademark sculptures made from whatever he has to hand (‘wool, sheep shit, chicken…

Richard Hughes

2 Oct 2008

SCULPTURE Richard Hughes makes some of the most repulsive sculptures around, and some of the most attractive. His subject matter is the sort of abandoned tat that would make most folk wrinkle their noses in disgust. Hughes lavishes attention on…

Sarah Wakeford: Light, Air and Space

2 Oct 2008

PAINTING ‘I see myself as a decorative artist,’ says Sarah Wakeford, ‘rather than one who wants to make a big political statement or anything like that. I paint things which I find attractive.’ It seems somewhat ironic that this is Wakeford’s view…

The Porcelain Project

2 Oct 2008

DANCE/VISUAL ART In the normal run of things, dancers rehearse, set-makers build and eventually the two elements come together. Not so with The Porcelain Project. The latest offering from Belgium’s Needcompany started life as an artwork by…

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

2 Oct 2008

‘Anyone can suffer from mental health issues, regardless of your walk of life,’ says Idlewild’s Rod Jones, curator of a music evening during the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. ‘It’s something I really wanted to get involved in. It’s…

Ansel Adams: Landscapes of the American West

2 Oct 2008

Following on from the City Art Centre’s exhibition earlier this year, a new giant coffee table book captures the epic grandeur of Ansel Adam’s photography. Landscapes of the American West cherry picks 120 of Adams’ most breathtaking shots, blowing up…

Gregor Laird: Plastic Pastorals

2 Oct 2008

ART GALLERY SHOW ‘Living in Edinburgh,’ says artist Gregor Laird, ‘I’m kind of surrounded by the romantic ideal of Scotland on a daily basis, all the picture postcards with this beautiful scenery on them.’ Sending up these chocolate box images…

Kjell Bjorgeengen/Paul Sharits

2 Oct 2008

SOUND INSTALLATION Do not adjust your sets. The 15 TV monitors arranged every which way in ‘Figment Light’, Norwegian auteur Kjell Bjorgeengen’s series of flicker-based sound and light installations, developed primarily at New York’s Experimental…

Picture perfect

2 Oct 2008

Artists have been invited to submit work for next year’s Jolomo Awards, which gives creatives the chance to win one of the UK’s largest privately funded painting prizes. Those applying must live and work in Scotland, have studied at a Scottish…

Kate Davis: Outsider

18 Sep 2008

DRAWING AND SCULPTURE As a reaction against her own previous work in this space – 2004’s Participant, which invited the audience to place themselves within the art – Kate Davis’ latest is a complete volte face. Outsider’s intention is to isolate the…

New Work Scotland Project 2008: Lila de Magalhaes

18 Sep 2008

VIDEO INSTALLATION Over the last nine years, autumn at the Collective has heralded an annual showcase for artists making their solo-show debuts under the wing of the gallery’s New Work Scotland Project. The first of three shows this year is by Lila…

Arches LIVE!

18 Sep 2008

Although billed as a theatre festival, the Arches’ annual celebration of performers who are ‘determined to subvert and surprise’ is just as likely to delight art-lovers, many of the events crossing the boundary between performance and installation. One…

Keith Ingham: Urban Echoes

18 Sep 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY As the title implies, Urban Echoes focuses on representations of the city environment. An experienced photographer, Keith Ingham has explored this well-worn theme through images taken both locally and internationally, using the…

Kill Your Timid Notion

18 Sep 2008

Since its first outing in 2003, Kill Your Timid Notion’s four editions have mixed and matched sound and vision and utilised the Dundee Contemporary Arts gallery space to the maximum. This year KYTN goes even further, with a large-scale exhibition…

Picture this

18 Sep 2008

Creatives of all ages are being encouraged to pick up their pens and pencils as the Big Draw returns for another year. Everyone from children to adults will be able to take full advantage of a programme that will see hundreds of venues announce hands-on…

Visual art: In the frame

The most significant works of art in Scotland

15 Sep 2008

Glasgow and Edinburgh’s galleries and museums play host to some of the most famous art works in the world. David Pollock selects the ten you cannot afford to miss.

Visual art: Hidden Art

15 Sep 2008

Away from Edinburgh and Glasgow’s public galleries, which have collections which match their budgets, many smaller spaces flourish. ‘Small’ is all relative, however. Venues like Glasgow’s centre for design and architecture The Lighthouse (www.the…

Alt-w: New Directions in Scottish Digital Culture (group show)

4 Sep 2008

Alt-w funds artists whose work engages with new technologies and the worldwide web. Featuring artworks by practitioners funded over the last eight years, this exhibition should be an embarrassment of riches. Yet, with such a heavy reliance on new media…

Peak Practice

4 Sep 2008

'The Lighthouse Architecture Series is a new five-year series celebrating a range of Scottish architectural practices, which have delivered nationally, and now deserve recognition in the international market,' says Leonie Bell, programme director at…

Sister Corita: Power Up

4 Sep 2008

Anti-war art is largely a samizdat operation, in which the means of production are seized via cheaply-made DIY posters and pamphlets. In the 1960s especially, pop art was imbued with a political context often left out of more hedonistically-inclined…

Steven Campbell: Wretched Stars, Insatiable Heaven (new work 2006-2007)

4 Sep 2008

Steven Campbell's work may not be to everyone's taste, but it's certainly powerful and affecting. Large-scale paintings assail the viewer with bright colours; paisley patterns merge with abstract designs and motifs borrowed from art history while…

Gallery of Modern Art acquires 'Phantom'

4 Sep 2008

Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art has bought Alison Watt's 'Phantom' work for £45,000. The work, a large abstract oil painting of moving fabric, will go on show at the gallery in November.

Jack Vettriano sketch auctioned for almost £40k

4 Sep 2008

A sketch of Jack Vettriano's 'The Singing Butler' drawn during a one-hour masterclass has fetched £39,650 at auction. Vettriano gave the iconic piece to the University of St Andrews, and proceeds will go to St Andrews Students Charities Campaign.

List picks: Visual art

4 Sep 2008

Arches Live!, Susan Collis, Kate Davis: Outsider, Steven Campbell: Wretched Stars Inflatable Heaven, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, The Lighthouse Architecture Series: Gareth Hoskins Architects, Sister Corita: Power Up

Susan Collis

4 Sep 2008

This first solo installation from the Scottish artist was inspired by the building site from which the new Ingleby Gallery sprang. The viewer is confronted by what appears to be loose screws, hanging rawl plugs and an abandoned broom propped up against…

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

edfest.tv - video

28 Aug 2008

A rare chance to experience the work of one of the most internationally respected artist partnerships, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.

Scavengers

edfest.tv - video

27 Aug 2008

100 clues. Nine hours. Register a team and set out in search of fame, glory and £2,000 cash.

Tracey Emin

edfest.tv - video

26 Aug 2008

A unique chance to see the first major retrospective of one of Britain's most celebrated and controversial artists.

Kate Davis

Outside interests

21 Aug 2008

This is the first time that New Zealand-born, Glasgow-educated artist Kate Davis has returned for a second exhibition within the same gallery space, and she’s eager that her latest show takes advantage of the fact. Where the original show with Sorcha…

Treasure Hunt

Rosalie Doubal leads a team around the city on a scavenger hunt in the name of art

21 Aug 2008

9am City Art Centre Equipped with a bike, a laptop, a compass, eight sandwiches and some anoraks, my team – a dyspraxic researcher, a father-of-one, a diehard Buckfast drinker and a token ginger – joins a long queue of eager scavengers. Neither the…

Alexander Heim: Doves

Harnessing pigeon power

21 Aug 2008

Lyrical and sophisticated, young German artist Alexander Heim’s first solo UK show exhibits a fascinating lightness of touch. Doves pivots around a video of pigeons at a London Costa Coffee branch. Exquisitely-composed photographs of fragments of…

Chad McCail

Puberty, print, perversion and compulsory education

21 Aug 2008

What a remarkable and strange artist Chad McCail is. By his own admission half of his output tends to be peopled by ‘robots, zombies or wealthy parasites’, while the other half looks like loose leaves from a particularly perverse Ladybird book. Both…

Dovecot: Weaving Influences

21 Aug 2008

An appreciation of the historic art of tapestry is not strictly necessary to enjoy this, one of two shows launching Dovecot as a new exhibiting space for art, craft and design. The twist here is that all the works were designed by leading modern artists…

Hitlist: Visual Art

21 Aug 2008

Return of the Soul: The Nakbah Project Remarkable installation of massed, suspended wax figures, commemorating the violent ethnic cleansing of thousands of Palestinian people after the 1948 establishment of the Israeli state. WASPS, Patriothall…

Hugh Brady: 39

Thought-provoking installation art

21 Aug 2008

The venue for this exhibition is Brady’s studio: a converted stable, which visually correlates to the photographer’s studio in Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic 1960s film Blow Up. From the starting point of the 39 on the exterior door, this is a…

Jo Spence: Self Portraits

21 Aug 2008

She may not be a household name, but the influence of Jo Spence, who died in 1992 from complications arising from leukaemia can be found in work by the likes of Cindy Sherman and Tracey Emin. This small but powerful retrospective includes works from…

Sculpture Diaries

21 Aug 2008

DOCUMENTARY Dead Ringers once made a big impersonating deal of the rivalry between TV historians Simon Schama and David Starkey. Maybe one day we’ll see small screen art guys Waldemar Januszczak and Matthew Collings doing some doppelganger bitching…

Tea-leafs ahoy!

21 Aug 2008

Rumours abound that a Tracey Emin polaroid was pinched from the Gilded Balloon Loft Bar, last week. The untitled display of ten self-portraits, consisting of enlarged Polaroids of the artist were hung up by pieces of velcro in the bar. Now only nine…

The Embassy: Mutatis Mutandis

Good work, bad show

21 Aug 2008

When the Embassy emerged several years ago, it was as a playful, bright-eyed young gallery with a serious interest in art, as demonstrated by the strong exhibition programme. It seemed as though Edinburgh was finally going to get an ambitious artist-run…

Harry Potter, Hippogriffs and beyond…

edfest.tv - video

18 Aug 2008

Free exhibition. Cliff Wright (Harry Potter cover artist) and friends present artwork for sale/interaction.

Bond Bound

edfest.tv - video

18 Aug 2008

Commemorating Ian Fleming's birth in 1908 and charting the role of artists and designers in creating and defining the Bond look.

The Golden Record - Sounds of Earth

edfest.tv - video

15 Aug 2008

Artists come together to remake the original Golden Record - a phonograph record launched into space in 1997 - containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. Over a hundred artists have created new work to…

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

14 Aug 2008

Over six pieces comprising kinetic sculpture, projections, visceral jokes, total immersion sensory works, whole room architectural installations and, with ‘Opera for a Small Room’ (pictured), an awe-inspiringly perfect sound sculpture, Cardiff and Bures…

5 Questions - Spam the Musical

14 Aug 2008

5 words to describe SPAM the Musical Viral, punk, trojan, fabulous & fucked up. 4 places we might be able to catch it Where you least expect it. Or www.spamthemusical.com , if you’re lazy. 3 other EAF exhibitions you’re looking forward to…

Big Things on the Beach: Garden Gallery

Public art, right on your doorstep

14 Aug 2008

As far as public art initiatives go, it doesn’t get much more DIY or community-focused than this. Twenty-nine separate works, most of which are hosted in the front gardens of Portobello houses, and all of them part of a scenic walking tour of the…

Eskimo

New exhibition space warmed up by a fine group show

14 Aug 2008

Having made their debut last Festival with a show at West Barns Studios, Polarcap return to East Lothian for this debut exhibition at Eskmills’ new gallery. Although the exposed roof beams give the impression that the gallery itself hasn’t actually been…

Frances Richardson: Playing Against Reason

The great global economic gamble, in heavily symbolic form

14 Aug 2008

Take Frances Richardson’s drawing and sculptures (the latter she refers to as ‘walk-in drawings’) literally and it seems the world is falling down around us. Or at least the financial world is, and that might not be too far from the truth. But how…

Gledinbow

Glasgow and Edinburgh reconciled through art?

14 Aug 2008

‘gleDinBow’ is pitched as an exhibition that has paired artists from Edinburgh with partners from Glasgow as a way to explore ‘sibling rivalry’ and attempt to cross perceived artistic boundaries between the two cities. In practise there is little…