Rosalie Doubal

Artist Matthew Darbyshire set for new Tramway show

London artists draws inspiration from Charles Rennie Mackintosh

6 Jan 2012

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…

Vault Art Glasgow is an inventive new art market

Featuring artists Dawn Youll, Ellie Harrison and Risa Tsunegi

24 Aug 2011

Vault is a new art fair that will take place inside an art installation, set inside an arts space, that houses artists’ studios. Like a Russian doll the event playfully peals back the dominant layers of today’s art market, to reveal independent practice…

Mystics or Rationalists?

Elegant conceptual works bend associations of the ordinary

17 Aug 2011

Stealing the show, Susan Hiller’s new levitation works are exemplary of the conceit at the heart of this group exhibition. Having infused conceptual and minimalist strategies with the influence of psychoanalysis and pop culture since the late 1960s…

Ben Brailsford

Self-confessed geek let down by repetitive material

16 Aug 2011

A bungling monologue this from a self-confessed geek and bassoonist, detailing his misfortune at being wrongly accused of aggravated trespass during the recent anti-cuts protests in London. His material is repetitive and the searing insignificance of…

Matthew Highton's Shadowed Vagary

Warm, intelligent and beautifully written tall tale

16 Aug 2011

This warm, intelligent and beautifully written tall tale winds its way from an office infatuation to an apocalyptical climax featuring a fembot with an allergy to Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce, Mickey Rourke’s magic peacock and an evil Patrick Moore. Sweet…

The Two Wrongies

Confused and confusing naked double-act

14 Aug 2011

It’s unclear where the poorly concealed punches in this crude cabaret of physical comedy are aimed. From five minutes into their performance, the female double-act remains in various states of undress, with predictable simulations of sex and naked…

Norman McBeath & Robert Crawford: Body Bags / Simonides

Mournful collaboration between photographer and poet

11 Aug 2011

Scots translations of epitaphs by the ancient Greek poet Simonides, coupled with black and white photographs, adorn the high-rising walls of two lofty Edinburgh College of Art studios. Joined by tall vases of white lilies, classical casts from the…

Interview: US artist Ingrid Calame

Transferring transfers marks and cracks from ground outside to gallery walls

3 Aug 2011

‘This is it!’ exclaims US artist Ingrid Calame, waving towards a radiant tabletop awash with transparent sacks of bright pigments, a sea of reds, pinks, blues and greens. She’s referring to a new drawing based on tracings plucked from the cement…

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…

Roberto Bolano - The Skating Rink

6 Oct 2010

(Picador) Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño’s seemingly boundless posthumous career continues to flex its muscles with this magnificent murder mystery. Centering upon the love and lust felt by three men for fallen Spanish figure skater Nuria, a triad of…

Christen Købke

1 Sep 2010

This bite-sized display of around 40 paintings by 17th century Danish painter Christen Købke offers an accessible and contextualised perspective on his work. In the face of the National Galleries’ other blockbusting survey exhibits, which soar and sweep…

David O’Doherty

Mild-mannered Dublin comic returns with less song and more chat

23 Aug 2010

The Casio keyboard remains but this year the mild-mannered Dublin comic returns with less song and more chat. And also more book reading, mainly from his recent publication 100 Facts About Pandas. Bung in a kaleidoscopic range of observational indie…

Carey Marx

Debunking some myths with craft and guile

22 Aug 2010

A veteran Pontin’s bluecoat recounting tales of his 19-year-old magician-self, Carey Marx’ fresh and well-judged set focuses on debunking the myths of phony spoon-bending, séance-leading practitioners. Hitting a surprising tone from the off-set, his…

Plan B

Nuanced and arresting marriage of text and image

19 Aug 2010

One of the most immediately arresting images of the Edinburgh Art Festival, photographer Norman McBeath’s black and white of a sculpture of Apollo swathed in smothering polythene, stands to represent a unique collaboration between this artist and…

Philip Braham: Falling Shadows In Arcadia

Insensitively curated exhibition pits the fragility of human life against the enduring landscape

19 Aug 2010

This exhibition of photographic prints by the Royal Scottish Academy’s Morton Award winner 2009 comprises two rather different series’. The most prominent pictures are of black and white scenes – forests, bodies of water, vacant bridges – that have been…

Max and Iván

High energy, fast-paced sketches

18 Aug 2010

This youthful double act presents a near-universal gung-ho set of high energy, fast-paced sketches, raucously covering everything from re-imaginings of blockbusters to advert appeals for a charity for models with eating disorders (where the only…

Jollie

Charmingly silly piece of musical comedy

16 Aug 2010

Earnest and classy nautical storytelling from two consummate performers is strengthened by an evidently seasoned friendship and although the duo’s on-stage bickers begin to drag, this is a charmingly silly piece of musical comedy. Accordion, clarinet…

Matt Tiller

Uninspired musical comedy

16 Aug 2010

This uninspired musical comedy from the lovely but rather outmoded Matt Tiller centres upon life’s little blips in social equilibrium: the toilet walk-in, the beach erection and saying the wrong thing after sex. This is fairly common material performed…

Shirley and Shirley

Dark twists on familiar sketch topics

12 Aug 2010

With fantastic energy and physical ability, strong, simple ideas and a remarkable on-stage chemistry, sketch show duo Shirley & Shirley are surely ones to watch. Comparisons to Smack the Pony are unavoidable but by no means disparaging, and while there…

Tana French - Faithful Place

Otherwise gripping drama suffers from inconsistencies

12 Aug 2010

As much a sprawling family drama as a crime novel, Tana French’s character-driven mystery has more of the life stuff – heart, family, class – than the average genre work. In following the trials of undercover Irish cop and estranged son, brother and…

Hito Steyerl: In Free Fall

Sophisticated film captures the global economic crisis

11 Aug 2010

A theoretician, artist and filmmaker interested in documentary strategies in contemporary art, Hito Steyerl’s work focuses on the intersection between politics and aesthetics, specifically the status of images as they circulate globally. Steyerl is a…

Joan Mitchell

Arresting display of abstract paintings

11 Aug 2010

Inverleith House really is a special place. An 18th century mansion reserved entirely for the display of art, its beautifully proportioned light-filled rooms enjoy unmatched views of rolling lawns and botanicals. The works that are exhibited within its…

Dave Hill

Navigates a fine path between the crass and the classy

11 Aug 2010

US comic Hill adopts a shy frat boy persona to chronicle the wide-eyed travels of an unsuccessful rock band of thirtysomethings in Japan. Endearingly conveying the marvel of garage band ambition, Hill’s relentless desire to rock provides a solid basis…

Jeremy Lion

Soused kids entertainer goes green

9 Aug 2010

Ruddy-faced Jeremy Lion uses the fertile format of the children’s educational play to bind an alcoholic slapstick to lyrical ditties detailing the dangers of global warming. It’s a finely tailored package of physical, musical and cynical gags that’s at…

Iran do Espírito Santo

Brazilian artist comes to the Ingleby Gallery presenting visual puns

5 Aug 2010

Internationally acclaimed Brazilian artist Espírito Santo here presents visual puns in the form of beautiful mirrored and crystal sculptures, and a wall painting that alternately produces an instinctive and immersive effect. This is a formula that not…