Alexander Kennedy

Tom Phillips: A Humument

29 Nov 2007

An exhibition depicting how Phillips transformed an obscure Victorian novel (A Human Document by WH Mallock) into a postmodern masterpiece. A Humument is widely regarded as one of the most successful and influential artist’s books of the last 50…

Radiance

15 Nov 2007

LIGHT INSTALLATION Various locations, Glasgow city centre, Fri 23–Sun 25 Nov As the nights draw in, Glasgow City Council is flooding the dark skies with light, filling the streets with large-scale light installations by some of the most successful…

Alasdair Gray

24 Apr 2008

Sometimes it’s more fun to ignore the explanatory gallery text and have a good look at the work. This seems an obvious enough way of dealing with art objects, but usually makes for lazy viewing and reviewing on the part of the critic. But it is…

Stephen Healy: Ethereal

28 Feb 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Streetlevel, Glasgow, until Sat 22 Mar The large photographs by Stephen Healy at Streetlevel continue his interventions into remote locations, in the form of sculptural installations, site-specific artworks and photo-based projects. This…

Alasdair Gray - art review

4 Oct 2007

To cherry pick from one’s own oeuvre sounds delightfully painful, a self indulgent task requiring sticky fingers and a good eye. It should be someone else’s enviable job, especially when the artist in question is Alasdair Gray, one of Scotland’s most…

Picture perfect

1 Aug 2007

From international stars like Andy Warhol and Picasso to Turner Prize winners and home grown talent, Alexander Kennedy finds rich pickings in the Edinburgh Art Festival

Picasso on Paper

Edinburgh International Art Festival

19 Jul 2007

Alexander Kennedy explores the enduring mass appeal of Pablo Picasso as two major new exhibitions of the great 20th century artist’s work come to Edinburgh

Interview - David Sillars

27 Mar 2008

Alexander Kennedy Can you tell us briefly about your new work? David Sillars Well it’s an evolving show; the pictures and the installation will be changing. Most of the pieces just now are about that continuing enquiry into our experience of…

Anthea Hamilton and Thomas Kratz

4 Jan 2008

INSTALLED PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES Mary Mary, Glasgow, until 26 Jan There is a history of sexed-up artistic collaborations in 20th century art, a long line of cosy twosomes that come together for occasional aesthetic satisfaction. The work on show by…

Roman Signer

4 Jan 2008

Selected by the artist for The Fruitmarket Gallery, this excellent exhibition provides both a snapshot of the Swiss artist’s current preoccupations and an insight into the themes and ideas that have inspired him throughout a long career. The works on…

Alasdair Gray

18 Oct 2007

A compelling selection of drawings, prints and paintings by one of Scotland’s most successful authors and illustrators of the late 20th century. The work on display spans 50 years or more, and includes designs from some of the front covers of Gray’s…

Roderick Buchanan: Histrionics

8 May 2007

FILM AND PHOTOGRAPHY. The new work by Glasgow-based artist Roderick Buchanan on show at GoMA forces the viewer to face the anti-Christian hatred that some Catholics and Protestants still revel in in Scotland. His work is a response to the sectarian…

Nick Evans: Rational Slab

Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 14 Apr

13 Mar 2007

SCULPTURE Nick Evans’ last exhibition at Sorcha Dallas was one of the highlights of 2005. But the new work on show at Mary Mary, created after his enormously successful residency and exhibition at Tate St Ives in 2006, further develops many of the…

Kalup Linzy

24 Apr 2008

FILM, PERFORMANCE AND PAINTING Washington Garcia, Glasgow, until Sun 27 Apr New-York based Kalup Linzy is more Vaginal Davis than a ‘Paris is Burning’ starlet, more Judy la Bruce (Bruce’s alter-ego) than Hedwig. But it cannot be denied that all of…

Group Show: Run 'Run'

24 Apr 2008

SCULPTURE, FILM AND DRAWING The Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, until Sat 3 May There has always been an indubitable relationship between art and science. A charcoal mark made on a cave wall is the result of various scientific…

Alex Frost

10 Apr 2008

‘I was asked to do a solo exhibition at the Collins gallery for Glasgow international,’ says Glasgow-based sculptor Alex Frost, ‘but the idea of putting a group show together just seemed more interesting.’ Frost and Sorcha Dallas have brought together a…

EJ Major: Try to do things we all can understand

10 Apr 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINTS AND FILM Street Level, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May Photographs capture nothing. Portraits are even more successful at framing the absence at the core of subjectivity and how this can be signified through the image. This is neither as…

Kathryn Williams & Neill MacColl

10 Apr 2008

COUNTRY FOLK Classic Grand, Glasgow, Wed 26 Mar You can hear the smile in Kathryn Williams voice, an almost effortless, laconic talent that soars high, floats and then falls down to a blusey bellow. Williams sings about the simple but ineffable…

Torsten Lauschmann

27 Mar 2008

PHOTOGRAPHS, INSTALLATION AND SCULPTURE GoMA, Glasgow, until Mon 26 May It’s difficult to pin down Glasgow-based Torsten Lauschmann’s work. All attempts to create a narrative or to find some kind of justification or single intention fail. This is the…

Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz: Waiting for Maleism

27 Mar 2008

INSTALLATION Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 5 Apr The title an artist gives to an exhibition can act as a manifesto, and Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz’s ‘Waiting for Maleism’ is no exception. He’s asking for trouble. The work on show comprises installed…

Go west: Print The Legend

13 Mar 2008

The idea of the American West once stretched out like a great virginal expanse of prairie, a fantasy only limited by imagination and the Pacific Ocean. This myth is not only an American obsession, but one that the whole western genre film-viewing world…

Let Me Show You Some Things: The Magic Lantern, Robert Orchardson and Sarah Tripp

13 Mar 2008

This collaborative installation brings together a large collection of films previously shown at The Magic Lantern (an independent film night at the CCA), a new film by Sarah Tripp and sculptures by Robert Orchardson. The short film format is ideally…

Isle of Harris

28 Feb 2008

To someone who, as a child, often prayed for the kind of harsh weather that kept the rest of the world at bay and provided an excellent excuse for ‘coorieing in’ and contemplation, the idea of staying on an island on the Outer Hebrides during the winter…

Craig Mulholland

28 Feb 2008

In an exhibition that spans three venues, and will morph into an even larger installation in Bristol later this year, Craig Mulholland’s Grandes et Petites Machines, which comprises sculptures, constructed ‘paintings’ and films, fills the Mackintosh…

Lotte Gertz

28 Feb 2008

PRINTING, DRAWING AND PAINTING Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 1 Mar It can be difficult to form a strong opinion about work that comes across as insubstantial and ‘bitty’. This may seem an obvious thing to say about the collages on show by Lotte Gertz…

Nick Evans and Tony Swain

14 Feb 2008

It seems Paul Nesbit can do no wrong at Inverleith House in the Botanic Gardens. The curator has a back catalogue of excellent exhibitions under his belt, having shown work by some of the most respected national and international artists. Following a…

Lotte Gertz

14 Feb 2008

PRINTING, PAINTING AND DRAWING Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 1 Mar Narrative of sorts emerges through the manipulation of formal elements in the printed, painted, drawn and collaged works of Lotte Gertz. In this, her first exhibition at Mary Mary, the…

Kendall Koppe and Douglas Morland: The Great Release

31 Jan 2008

PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND PRINT The Intermedia space is a slippery fish, but it is usually worth trying to land the thing. The exhibition by Kendall Koppe and Douglas Morland is a case in point. The work on show deals with aspects of subjectivity that…

Spencer Sweeny

31 Jan 2008

PAINTING There’s less shtick and more confidence in this exhibition of paintings by New York-based artist Spencer Sweeney. The freewheeling, almost accidental approach to image-making that the artist employed in his previous exhibition in the space…

Interview - Matthew Buckingham

17 Jan 2008

Alexander Kennedy talks to Matthew Buckingham about his new film installations at DCA AK Tell us about the work you are showing at DCA. MB The three larger projects on view at the DCA are each organized around some of the questions that arise…

Spencer Sweeney

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Feb New York-based painter Spencer Sweeney’s art seems to be suffering from a personality crisis, with stylistic approaches, materials and assumed personas thrown into a big American Magimix…

Re-make/Re-model

17 Jan 2008

This exhibition brings together cross-generational artists who use performance as an integral part of their practice. The work on show examines the act of making and recording live actions, as well as presenting the two and three-dimensional objects…

Roman Signer

17 Jan 2008

A mini-retrospective of work by the Swiss artist. Signer’s sculptural installations and film work that records the straight-faced slapstick actions the artist has undertaken throughout his career. The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 27 Jan.

Openended Group: Moves

4 Jan 2008

INSTALLED DIGITAL FILMS CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 12 Jan After a spate of uninteresting exhibitions that have attempted to turn the CCA into a ‘major platform for electronic and digital work’, we are faced with another technologically interesting but…

Gillespie, Kidd and Coia: Architecture 1956–1987

4 Jan 2008

A long overdue exhibition of the Scottish Modernist masters, this is the first major retrospective of the work of one of the UK’s most distinguished architecture practices. Gillespie, Kidd & Coia’s imaginative approach to architecture resulted in a wide…

Re-make/Re-model

4 Jan 2008

An exhibition of work by Linder, Sophie MacPherson, Babette Mangolte, Martin Soto Climent and Jimmy Roberts. The work on show deals with the debris of performance and performativity, highlights being sculptural work by Climent and a film of Trisha Brown…

Hot 100 - 2007's hottest talent

13 Dec 2007

Scottish culture has shone in 2007, and so have Scottish stars. Throughout the year we have been working tirelessly to spot the hottest talent out there. We also invited you to nominate the people, places and events you think have made the greatest…

Review of the year - visual art

13 Dec 2007

In a year that’s brought the best work by Picasso and Warhol to our doors, this has otherwise been a relatively quiet one for Scottish visual art. Everybody got on with what they did best. In the capital the first Edinburgh Art Festival took place under…

Thomas Houseago, A Million Miles Away

13 Dec 2007

It's always suspect to examine the forgotten ‘primitive’ memory of the figurative in Modernism – to return to Modernism's repressed, barely formed ‘wild urges’. When such an attempt is filtered through an ironic, neo-expressionist approach, it’s even…

Group show: Re-make/Re-model

13 Dec 2007

Contemporary art curators and gallery owners no longer merely show work because it’s good but because it somehow justifies itself through weighty themes and explication. This is art’s loss. The exhibition of work by Linder, Sophie MacPherson, Babette…

Quentin Blake

29 Nov 2007

ILLUSTRATION Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, until Tue 1 Jan When you take an illustration away from the text it was created for, the lone image can quickly become a very dire prospect or can leave the viewer scratching their head…

Interview - Carol Rhodes

29 Nov 2007

Carol Rhodes, known for her landscapes painted from a vertiginous aerial perspective, talks to Alexander Kennedy about her new exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Alexander Kennedy Can you share some of the main themes and…

Thomas Houseago

29 Nov 2007

SCULPTURE The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 5 Jan LA-based, Leeds-born Houseago makes his Glasgow debut at the Modern Institute with slashed and scraped figurative works, sculptures that amalgamate stylistic elements from Cubism…

The Openended Group: Moves

29 Nov 2007

FILM INSTALLATION CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 12 Jan In response to the CCA’s ethos of promoting electronic and digital work, the OpenEnded Group exhibits a series of ‘moving image’ works exploring the relationship between choreography, space and…

Convulsive Illustration

29 Nov 2007

An exhibition of work that creates a ‘creeping feeling of the sinister and scabrous... in an attempt to keep the conventions of commercial art at pox-ridden arm’s length’. Twelve artists exhibit their work, including Georg Barber, Silvia Battista, Arne…

Interview - Russell Ferguson

15 Nov 2007

Alexander Kennedy takes a walk in the woods and meets Russell Ferguson, co-owner and curator at Analogue Alexander Kennedy Tell me about the exhibition space at Analogue. Which artists have you shown there and what kind of work do you exhibit?

Gillespie, Kidd and Coia: 1956–1987

15 Nov 2007

ARCHITECTURE The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Sun 10 Feb It’s always difficult to review an architecture exhibition. Do you focus on the realised buildings or the sketches, blueprints and models on show and the way they are presented? At first…

Marjolaine Ryley

15 Nov 2007

PHOTOGRAPHY Street Level, Glasgow, until Sat 22 Dec The exhibition of photos by Sunderland-based Marjolaine Ryley at Street Level does exactly what we now expect photography to do in the eternally expansive post-modern moment – register and present…

Susanne Norregard Nielsen: Flowerbed

15 Nov 2007

An exhibition of photographs documenting the flowerbed Nielsen planted at St Andrews Royal Botanic Garden in 2004. The bed was planted with flowers that Mondrian drew and painted in the early part of his career. LAST CHANCE TO SEE. West Corridor…

Ilana Halperin: Towards Heilprin Land

15 Nov 2007

The Glasgow-based artist continues her examination of how her personal biography overlaps with the history, geography and geology of selected locations, creating mythologies that utilise a wide range of media to document these suggested…