GOOD things happen in the visual arts in Scotland all year-round. So much so, that it’s impossible to cover it all. Take 2016. It’s barely a week old and my inbox runneth over.
In Glasgow, home to The Glasgow Miracle, a phenomenon which sees the city attract cutting-edge contemporary artists like moths to a flame, there’s a host of happenings.
On January 30 and 31, at 6pm, at Langside Hall in the city’s southside, Paris-based artist Ulla von Brandenburg presents a promenade work "for five actors and chorus". This is being presented by The Common Guild, who brought Janice Kerbel’s Turner Prize nominated opera, Doug, to the table. Worth keeping an eye on.
Next month, Turner Prize winning photographer, Wolfgang Tillmans, will exhibit his pictures from New World in the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow while contemporary art festival, Glasgow International, returns to Glasgow for its second edition with Sarah McCrory in the Director’s chair from April 8 – 25.
The programme includes 40 group shows and 36 solo exhibitions by international and Glasgow-based artists including Claire Barclay, Tamara Henderson, Helen Johnson, Cosima von Bonin, Derrick Alexis Coard, Tessa Lynch, Rallou Panagiotou and Monika Sosnowska.
Over to the north of the city, the long-awaited reopening of Kelvinhall takes place this autumn. A partnership between Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life, the University of Glasgow and the National Library of Scotland is currently transforming this historic building into a cultural centre providing Glasgow Museum’s collections’ storage, teaching and research.
Look out for a cracking-sounding show called Comic Invention at The Hunterian from March 18 until July 17, which brings the world of the art of making comics through the centuries.
In Edinburgh, Visual Arts Scotland presents a major show opening at the RSA Building on The Mound at the end of January. I’m looking forward very much to seeing the ten shortlisted exhibits in the second Cordis Award for Tapestry.
British Art Show 8 arrives at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in the Capital on February 13 and remains in situ until May 8. Ever-inventive Scot Rachel Maclean’s Feed Me has been singled out by critics as a highlight. For a snapshot of where contemporary art is in Britain right now, this is the place.
The National Galleries of Scotland’s 2016 programme promises several highlights.
Surreal Encounters: Collecting the Marvellous, at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art between 4 June and 11 September. This brings together works of art from four private collections and includes work by Picasso, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Dalí, Joan Miró, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Delvaux, Yves Tanguy and Man Ray. Dalí’s Mae West Lips sofa will undoubtedly be a star of this show.
A few weeks later, an exhibition looking at the artist behind the Impressionist movement opens its doors. Inspiring Impressionism will examine the work of largely overlooked Charles François Daubigny. Facing the World: Self-Portraits from Rembrandt to Ai Weiwei opens in mid-July at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, bringing portraiture from 400 years together with 21st century #selfie culture. An end-of year treat for lovers of Scotland’s favourite 20th century painter will be served up in Joan Eardley: Fifteen Years at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
This show draws on archive material in the NGoS collection to present an intimate portrayal of Eardley who crammed a lifetime’s work into 15 short years.
In Montrose, close to the north east village of Catterline where Eardley found endless material in gathering storms, artist and curator, Kim Canale is planning a host of activities under her Wall Projects banner. Eardley has been a constant source of inspiration to Canale. This year, in her uber-atmospheric Old Ropeworks gallery a former rope-works, complete with underground tunnel leading to the sea where rope was manufactured, she is staging Impressions of Catterline III.
Canale last mounted a Catterline show five years ago in her home gallery and it always presents gems from artists who have responded in their own way to the small hilltop village.
This year, Heroica Theatre Company, which has been developing a play based on Joan Eardley’s life, will be performing and holding a special event to coincide with the exhibition.
As always, there are tasty art-happenings in every airt and pairt of this small nation throughout the year. This is just a morsel.
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