VISUAL ART list.co.uk/visualart
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HITLIST THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
✽ Victoria Morton Scottish artist Victoria Morton presents a new collection of
intricate and intuitive paintings. See review, page 121. Modern Institute Aird’s Lane, Glasgow, until Sat 17 Jan.
✽ Manuel Chavajay and Rebecca Wilcox: This Might Be a Place for Hummingbirds Guatemalan artist Manuel Chavajay and Glasgow-based Rebecca Wilcox are not an obvious coupling for a double solo exhibition at the CCA, but a conversation emerges from their distinct artistic positions in this show. See review, page 124. CCA, Glasgow, until Sun 18 Jan.
✽ Edgelands: Idris Murphy and Paul
Martin Murphy and Martin first met aged 22 in London. They met again in Perth, Australia, 43 years later, where they decided to organise an exhibition together. Edgelands brings together paintings from both artists. See review, page 121. Warburton Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 25 Jan.
✽ Christopher Orr: The Beguiled Eye See review, left. Talbot Rice Gallery,
Edinburgh, until Sat 14 Feb.
✽ The Two Roberts: Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde Once high-profile members of the Soho set, this show is their first major exhibition since the artists died in the 1960s. See review, page 121. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 24 May.
✽ Alasdair Gray: Spheres of Influence I and II An emphatic celebration of one of Scotland’s most revered and significant artists as he turns 80. See review, page 122. Glasgow School of Art until Sun 25 Jan and GOMA, Glasgow, until Mon 25 May.
CHRISTOPHER ORR: THE BEGUILED EYE Orr’s postcard-sized paintings capture a mysterious other world
T here is a deceptively simple quality to Christopher Orr’s paintings which only begins to unravel on close scrutiny. At first glance the gallery is smattered with a small number of postcard-sized paintings, all sharing a muted green or brown palette. But step in close to any one and you are drawn into an uncanny world where unexplainable events seem to be taking place.
In some paintings, minute figures with their backs turned carry out mysterious activities, such as in ‘Silent One’ where a man and woman peer with curiosity into a black cave to witness a floating, disembodied male head emerging through the darkness. Other paintings depict only a strange, unsettling atmosphere such as ‘No Birds do Sing’, where we look through a muddy keyhole into a deep grey fog. The analytical detail and precision of Orr’s paintings might
120 THE LIST 11 Dec 2014–5 Feb 2015
at first seem methodically planned, but the inclusion of his sketchbooks in the upper gallery reveal a far more expressive mind at work, filled with fluid collages and ink drawings.
In fact, Orr explains the process used in all his paintings in the accompanying catalogue, where the paintings evolve on the easel rather than being planned out in advance: ‘the canvas becomes like a sketchbook where ideas are worked out.’ Where previously these corrections and ‘mistakes’ would have been covered up, his more recent paintings leave the work’s history just visible in ghostly marks and outlines, introducing even more layers of mystery into the enigmatic, private worlds that he creates. (Rosie Lesso)
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 14 Feb ●●●●●
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