list.co.uk/visualart Previews & Reviews | VISUAL ART
PRINTMAKING 40/40: FORTY YEARS, FORTY ARTISTS Glasgow Print Studio, until Sun 13 Oct
This is more than just a group show, it’s a history lesson to accompany a seminal strand of Glasgow’s rich art heritage. Opened in 1973 by original director Calum Mackenzie in a disused factory unit on Ingram Street just as businesses were leaving the area, the studio helped pave the way for what’s since been branded ‘Glasgow’s Cultural Quarter’. In the years which followed, the now defunct Print Studio Press would go on to publish work by Liz Lochhead, Edwin Morgan and James Kelman, as well as Alasdair Gray’s first book The Comedy of the White Dog in 1979.
It was at GPS that Gray would create the lithographs for
Lanark, and he continues to work there to this day. He’s just one of the 40 emerging and established artists (both GPS members and invitees) who have created new works for the King Street venue at the request of director John Mackechnie, a roster which also features Elizabeth Blackadder, Martin Boyce and John Byrne. ‘The works range from “Deep Inside” by Jim Lambie, exploring the last words of Aldous Huxley before he died of an LSD overdose, to the brooding darkness of “Nocturne”, a new etching by Ken Currie which was inspired by a news story of deer being hunted and killed in the Necropolis cemetery,’ says Claire Forsyth, GPS workshop manager.
40/40 also contains a few exclusives such as the GPS’ first ever print from Alison Watt and the only Toby Paterson work known to contain people. ‘One of the most interesting parts of the project for me was seeing how each artist approached being invited to make a print,’ continues Forsyth. ‘Some of the artists work in a very sequential way and making an individual print was very much a continuation of their practice. Others welcomed the chance to explore other ideas that hadn’t found a natural home previously and would translate well into print.’ (David Pollock)
K R A L C H T U R © O T O H P
MIXED MEDIA GROUP SHOW GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART GRADUATE DEGREE SHOW The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Sat 28 Sep
OUTREACH PROJECT THE NATION // LIVE Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 5 Oct–Tue 6 May PAINTING SUE TOMPKINS: EXPRESSIONS The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 2 Nov ●●●●●
It may be a bit of a cliché – see the stars of tomorrow, today – but in regard to the Glasgow School of Art graduate degree show, it’s actually true. And given that GSA regularly turns out Turner and BAFTA prizewinners as well as other artists of international renown, it’s little wonder that this annual event is so eagerly anticipated. Last year’s public showcase of the school’s
varied artistic disciplines was a real success and one work to watch out for among this year’s batch is Korea’s Kim Seong Jae’s ‘The Comedians, Flat 2/2’ from the series ‘24 Elizabeth St’. Working in his own Glasgow flat and inspired by a selection of photographers, Jae uses latex masks to create a series of eccentric ‘self’ portraits portraying fictional characters based particularly around Govan. Another name that stands out is Andrew Welsby,
a Master of Research in Creative Practices. His ‘drawing machine constructed to behave in accordance with the rules of cybernetics at work’ couldn’t be more literally or clearly explained. Utilising an oil-drum that rebounds off the sides of a defined space, the theme here is the manufacture of Scottish identity as the work becomes a product of its own environment. (Barry Gordon)
When a bust of the late trade union activist Jimmy Reid was removed from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and taken around cross-general communities in Clydebank, where Reid co-led the famous shipbuilders’ work-in of 1971 and 1972, it led to a voice drama being performed on the site of the former John Brown Shipyard on May Day 2012. The performance was one of five major projects developed as part of The Nation // Live, the gallery’s first big outreach project since it was refurbished. ‘Some people think museums are just about dead people,’ explains the gallery’s chief outreach officer, Robin Baillie, ‘but we wanted to have people explore their own history and make it relevant to today.’ Based around five themes that have shaped
modern Scotland – Work, Union, Faith, Civil War and Roots – The Nation // Live put artists into relevant communities with an exhibit taken from the Portrait Gallery’s collection to explore each theme. The results of the project include a dance piece created on Skye, the casting of bronze medals in Fort George, and a 10” vinyl album of folk songs led by Drew Wright, aka 21st-century folklorist Wounded Knee. A film by Daniel Warren will form the centrepiece of the show. (Neil Cooper)
Expressions, the latest exhibition by Glasgow-based artist Sue Tompkins, is presented to us in the bright, neutral expanse of the former glass factory on Aird’s Lane, now part of The Modern Institute. This space is the perfect venue for Tompkins’ large-scale paintings and smaller canvases. Applying bold blocks of textured colour and painted words with her hands, there is an overwhelming sense of self- expression and action in her work.
As an artist for whom language is explored and
expressed through painting and performance, Tompkins uses short, fragmented written words. Wielding a scalpel to make sharp, clean incisions on the surface of her paintings, she breaks through the restrictive boundaries of the canvas, echoing the innovative methods of the mid-20th century abstract expressionists. Tompkins shares their rebellious approach as she
becomes part of her work, and in turn allows the paintings to open up far beyond the scope of the two-dimensional canvas. Expressions is the fourth of Tompkins’ exhibitions with The Modern Institute and, though it uses a less familiar medium for her, it would seem unlikely to be her last. (Rachel Craig)
19 Sep–17 Oct 2013 THE LIST 105