RESIDENT I – First group exhibition at Colstoun House

RESIDENT I

The first group exhibition at Colstoun House, featuring work from eight of its residency artists in August

Friday 2 – Sunday 11 August 2024

Colstoun House, Haddington, East Lothian, EH41 4PA

Quickly following its opening exhibition by Joe Grieve in May 2024, Colstoun Arts mounts its second public exhibition showcasing eight artists who have all attended the Colstoun Artist Residency at Colstoun House in East Lothian since October 2022. 

Opening on Friday 2 August, for two weeks the work of artists Raffael Bader, James Dearlove, Lara Cobden, Suhayla H, Marina Renee Cemmick, Joe Grieve, Angelique Nagovskaya & Jen Hitchings will be shown in the historic Colstoun House on the East Lothian estate. 

Globally recognised and exhibited Leipzig artist Raffael Bader’s tension filled landscapes will sit alongside Ingram Prize and Bloomberg New Contemporaries artists James Dearlove’s surrealist takes on the Scottish countryside.

Both will be exhibited alongside Jen Hitchings, so well known for her otherworldly landscapes featured in a number of exhibitions in North America And Europe; Lara Cobden, a member of the Norwich 20 Group focussing on memory and sense of place, responding to the natural world around her; Ely based Suhaylah Hamid, an internationally exhibited self-taught artist who recently announced a collaboration with the V&A on a limited edition print series; Marina Renée-Cemmick, a figurative Artist working across multiple disciplines featured in King Charles’ Royal Collection, whose practice is founded on drawing and human observation; Angelique Nagovskaya, a Canadian-American artist and RCA graduate currently based in Washington DC, who attended Colstoun to spend time developing new ideas for her eminent practice; and Joe Grieve, whose solo exhibition The Other Side was the first exhibition Colstoun Arts mounted in May 2024, and whose work is in collection in over 20 countries.

Annually Colstoun Arts invites 6 to 8 artists to spend a month or more at its home, Colstoun House just outside Edinburgh in East Lothian. During this residency they produce a cohesive body of work inspired by the house and grounds.

During these residencies, Colstoun Arts works with artists to provide learning and development opportunities, introduce them to industry experts, and provide them with guidance.

The Colstoun Arts experience goes well beyond the traditional residency, welcoming artists to become part of life on the estate, experiencing the highs and lows of normal life whilst also providing a dedicated secluded environment with top class studio facilities to push the boundaries of their practice. ​

Beginning in 2022, this residency programme is designed to develop the careers of a handful of artists each year in a meaningful way, it also provides an opportunity for established artists to take a break from their practice. It is hoped that over time the alumni of this programme will begin to help one another and provide meaningful contributions to Landscape, Nature Inspired and British Art.

These new works will be shown alongside more historical works from the Colstoun Estate Collection, including numerous works by RSA artists past including Sir John Watson-Gordon and Joshua Reynolds, as well Italian landscapes and Dutch still lifes. Both elements play important roles in Colstoun Arts’ vision to become a national museum of landscape and nature inspired art.

Alongside the exhibition the main floor of the house will be open to public viewing for the first time, the curatorial focus of this project being to display historical artworks and antique furnishings collected over generations alongside contemporary artworks. The parkland will be open to the public, and the dining room will be open to members of the public for tea and coffee.

Mackie Sinclair-Parry, Director of Colstoun Arts said: “The variety of work created by our selected artists and the impact the seasons here at Colstoun have played on their work is astonishing.

“This exhibition serves as the conclusion on a residency experience we hope will stick with artists for the rest of their lives and provide benefits across business acumen as well as artistic practice. 

“Art has always been a part of Colstoun’s history. When you look at the walls and see hundreds of years of art collected through the generations, it becomes obvious why we should create a sustainable, progressive way in which to collect contemporary art and present it to the wider population.

“It started with the Colstoun Artist Residency but is now being expanded to include public exhibitions and collaborations with external galleries and museums.”

Colstoun Arts will support the acquisition of artworks for the Colstoun Arts Collection which includes works from established contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk, Peter Randall-Page, Conrad Shawcross, Tracey Emin, Carolina Mazzolari, Robin Friend, Alina Zamanova and more as well as emerging artists Raffael Bader, Luke Alen-Buckley, Lily Lewis, Joe Grieve, Lara Cobden, Suhaylah H., James Dearlove and Marina Rennee-Cemmick.