VISUAL ART
Exhibitions are listed by city, then alphabetically by venue. Submit listings at least 16 days before publication by using our ‘Add an Event’ service at list.co.uk Listings compiled by Alex Johnston. All exhibitions free unless otherwise stated. ✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
GLASGOW ■ 190 TRONGATE Trongate. Opening times vary, see individual events for details. Toby Paterson: Ludic Motif Until Sat 20 Dec. Tue–Sat noon–5pm. Installation in a former RBS branch.
■ ART PISTOL 5 Cresswell Lane, 416 1232. Opening times vary, see individual events for details. Art Pistol Winter Show Until Wed 24 Dec. Wed–Sun 11am–5pm. Original artworks and prints for sale. ■ BURRELL COLLECTION 2060 Pollokshaws Road, 287 2550. Mon–Thu & Sat 10am–5pm; Fri & Sun 11am–5pm. Note: gallery is closed Wed 24–Fri 26 Dec; open Wed 31 Dec 2014 10am–1pm; closed Thu 1 & Fri 2 Jan 2015. Bellini to Boudin Until Sat 21 Mar. Discover 40 gems from the Burrell’s fine art collection, including works by Degas, Cezanne and Whistler.
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GROUP SHOW ALASDAIR GRAY: SPHERES OF INFLUENCE I AND II GOMA until Mon 25 May and Glasgow School of Art until Sun 25 Jan ●●●●●
It’s only too fitting that the programme image for the first of these two shows, which form part of the Glasgow-wide Alasdair Gray season lovingly and meticulously put together by Sorcha Dallas to mark Glasgow’s original renaissance man’s 80th year, is a compass. For both the GOMA show it heralds and its accompanying GSA show join the dots between those who influenced this poppiest of classicists and those who followed in his wake, with Gray both wide-eyed bridge and beacon between the two. So at GOMA we move from Dürer’s crucifixions, Blake’s judgements and Aubrey Beardsley’s erotic politesse to Japanese figurative art, line drawings by David Hockney, the vintage poetics of Adrian Wiszniewski and Chad McCail’s poster-sized take on wisdom and experience. The umbilical links between these and Gray’s own works are made plain, yet remain tantalisingly fresh even as the join is gloriously exposed.
Over at Gray’s alma mater, things are brought even closer to home as volumes poached from Gray’s own home library, including a Radio Times annual, appear alongside book covers for his own work and contemporaries such as Agnes Owens. There’s a mix of the meta- physical and the grizzled in pieces by Eric Gill, drawings by Peter Howson and the rad-fem desires of Dorothy Iannone, while Stuart Murray’s dole culture cartoons bring things bang up to date.
The frontispieces of each of the four books that make up Gray’s 1981
novel, Lanark, which reimagined Glasgow as a fantastical magical- realist kingdom, appear in both shows as pivotal works. Adorned with super-heroic bodies set against infinitely accessible but densely detailed landscapes, seen together they are comic-book multi-verses writ large. Finally, Hanna Tuulikki’s two pen and ink images, ‘Ascension’ and
‘Fall’, encapsulate the spiritual, the erotic and the heroic, the holy trinity of Gray’s world, which grows more magical by the day. (Neil Cooper)
122 THE LIST 11 Dec 2014–5 Feb 2015
■ CCA 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. Galleries Tue–Sat 11am–6pm; Sun noon–6pm; closed Mon, but individual exhibitions may vary. General opening hours Mon–Sat 10am–midnight; Sun noon–midnight. Note: gallery is closed Thu 25 Dec 2014– Fri 2 Jan 2015 inclusive.
✽ Manuel Chavajay & Rebecca Wilcox: This Might Be a Place for Hummingbirds Until Sun 18 Jan. Work by two artists with apparently little in common: Guatemalan painter and sculptor Chavajay and Glasgow-based video artist Wilcox. See review, page 124.
■ COMPASS GALLERY 178 West Regent Street, 221 6370. Mon– Fri 9.30am–5.30pm; Sat 10am–5pm; closed Sun. Note: gallery is closed Thu 25 & Fri 26 Dec 2014 and Thu 1 & Fri 2 Jan 2015. Compass Gallery Cabinet Show Until Wed 31 Dec. Exhibition based on the custom of European travellers in the 17th and 18th centuries, who would go abroad and bring back items which they’d then display in cabinets. With works from over 100 contemporary artists, taking in painting, drawings, prints, glass, ceramics and sculpture. ■ CYRIL GERBER FINE ART 178 West Regent Street, 221 3095. Mon– Fri 9.30am–5.30pm; Sat 10am–5pm; closed Sun. Note: gallery is closed Thu 25 & Fri 26 Dec 2014 and Thu 1 & Fri 2 Jan 2015. The Winter Collection Until Sat 31 Jan. Annual Winter exhibition of paintings, drawings, limited-edition prints, sculptures and ceramics.
■ GALLERY OF MODERN ART Royal Exchange Square, 287 3050. Mon– Wed & Sat 10am–5pm; Thu 10am–8pm; Fri & Sun 11am–5pm. Note: gallery is closed Wed 24–Fri 26 Dec; open Wed 31 Dec 2014 10am–1pm; closed Thu 1 & Fri 2 Jan 2015.
✽ Alasdair Gray: Spheres of Influence I Until Mon 25 May.
The centrality of Alasdair Gray’s work as a visual artist and writer is traceable by drawing connections between his epic work and that of the artists who’ve come before and after him. This exhibition looks at the influences on Gray himself, and his
own influence on others, drawing on works in the Gallery’s collection. See review, left. Part of The Alasdair Gray Season. Art From Elsewhere: International Art from Contemporary UK Galleries Until Sun 1 Feb. A touring exhibition of international art showing work acquired through an Art Fund scheme. The works on show differ in each location because they’re drawn from each gallery’s collection. The GoMA exhibition features work by Peter Hujar, Jenny Holzer, Paulo Bruscky, Ana Mendieta, Kara Walker and Amar Kanwar, among others. Nathan Coley: The Lamp of Sacrifice Until Sun 1 Mar. A series of scale models in cardboard of every place of worship listed in the 2004 Edinburgh telephone directory, made by the artist himself and his assistant Tony Nolan over the course of three months. Part of Generation.
■ GLASGOW FILM THEATRE 12 Rose Street, 332 6535. Henry Coombes: The Bedfords Sun 14 Dec, 7.45pm. ‘The Bedfords’ tells the story of English painter Edwin Landseer’s commission to paint a family portrait of the Bedfords at their home in the Scottish Highlands. Like a 20-minute moving painting, the film is a portrait study of Landseer and contains a variety of sub-plots that entice and demand to be developed into a feature-length rendition. Double bill with Alasdair Gray: A Life in Progress.
■ GLASGOW PRINT STUDIO Trongate 103, 552 0704. Gallery: Tue–Sat 10am–5.30pm; Sun noon–5pm; closed Mon. Workshop: Tue–Thu 10am–9pm; Fri & Sat 10am–5.30pm; closed Sun & Mon. Academicians III Until Sun 25 Jan. Prints by four Royal Academicians: Marian Leven, Hughie O’Donoghue, Barbara Rae and Emma Stibbon. ■ HOUSE FOR AN ART LOVER Bellahouston Park, 10 Dumbreck Road, 353 4776. Art Lovers Cafe and Shop open daily 10am–5pm; House opening times vary, please call to check. Note: closed Thu 25 & Fri 26 Dec 2014 & Thu 1 & Fri 2 Jan 2015. Creative Coverage Until Mon 12 Jan. Group show of still lifes, landscapes and botanical drawings by Jerry Alexander, Anthony Barber, Sue Colyer, Ali Lindley, Jonathan Mitchell and Stuart Stanley. Tom McKendrick: Soldiers Until Mon 22 Dec. ArtPark Pavilion, daily 11am–4pm. Eighteen portraits of members of the armed forces out of a projected 100, designed to be a snapshot of a project that will eventually serve as a record of the armed forces and the people who served in them.
■ HUNTERIAN MUSEUM & ART GALLERY University of Glasgow, 82 Hillhead Street, 330 4221. Tue–Sat 10am–5pm; Sun 11am–4pm; closed Mon. Holiday opening hours: Art Gallery open Wed 24 Dec, 10am–3pm; Sat 27, Sun 28, Tue 30 & Wed 31 Dec 2014 and Sat 3 & Sun 4 Jan 2015, 11am–4pm; closed Thu 25, Fri 26, Mon 29 Dec 2014 and Thu 1 & Fri 2 Jan 2015. Museum open Wed 24 Dec 10am–3pm; closed Thu 25 Dec 2014–Fri 2 Jan 2015 inclusive; open Sat 3 & Sun 4 Jan 11am–4pm. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Begonias Until Sun 4 Jan. View one of Mackintosh’s London still lifes, which draws on his lifelong botanical studies. Lucy Skaer Until Sun 4 Jan. A drawing, a film and two wooden sculptures, influenced by the maverick English surrealist Leonora Carrington. Mackintosh Travel Sketches Until Sun 15 Feb. ‘Bits’ and ‘jottings’ from Mackintosh’s travels around Scotland, England and further afield. William Davidson: Art Collector Until Sun 4 Jan. Exhibition examining the collection of Davidson, one of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s most important 11 Dec–5 Feb 2014 THE LIST 122