Collective is delighted to present Acts of Observation, a group show by artists and writers Ana García Jácome, Jeda Pearl Lewis, Abi Palmer and Simon Yuill. The new exhibition spans our entire site and is presented as a series of solo presentations, or ‘acts’, throughout our different buildings, spaces, and online.
Dynamic in form and content, the artists brought together present a diverse range of works including film, interactive installation, writing and architectural interventions.
Acts of Observation directly questions, contextualises and challenges how we negotiate institutional language and spaces, and how disability is represented. The participating artists articulate and politicise notions of recovery and offer visions of positive, inclusive futures.
Artworks on display include: interactive installation Crip Casino by Abi Palmer, where absurdist poetic diagnoses are delivered by the spirit of Elvis reimagined as a medical practitioner; two film works by Ana García Jácome – It’s Like She Had Never Existed and The [ ] History of Disability in Mexico, new poetry by Jeda Pearl which questions how we are observed and which bodies are seen as sublime; and a new text work by Simon Yuill, expanding the text works produced for the artist manifesto Not Going Back to Normal.
Join us on Saturday 25 September, 2 – 4pm, to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, including a live poetry reading by Jeda Pearl Lewis. This is an open event and all are welcome.
Much of the event will take place outdoors in our new ‘Play Shelter’ so please dress for the weather! Numbers inside the exhibition spaces will be monitored in line with social distancing advice so a short wait may be required.
Please RSVP by booking a free ticket on Eventbrite.
Got your tickets for the Hidden Door Opening Party?? We’ve got some very special things lined up …
Our festival kicks off with a reprise of The Call: an inspiring project born in lockdown with composer Esther Swift conducting 20 of the best Scottish musicians and from across the gasworks site with huge flags.
The stages will burst to life with performances by Edinburgh-based pop-luminaries MALKA and Hamish Hawk, plus magical singer-songwriter Tiberius b, all paving the way for one of Scotland’s most significant talents, Pictish Trail.
We fully expect the opening night to be the celebration we have all been waiting for.
Also look out for spoken word from Jen McGregor and check out Something Smashing – a live performance that brings together musicians and dancers, a platform for improvisers and the audience to explore the unexpected!
And be sure to explore the whole site to discover visual works from over 30 artists!
ditto ditto ditto is a cross-media installation in our Hillside space which marks a significant point in Alison’s expansive research project around weather.
Building on two years of archival, performative and collaborative research ditto, ditto, ditto includes new writing, sound, custom wallpaper, moving image and sculptural elements. The exhibition title comes from time spent in the Scottish Meteorological Society’s archives, where Alison examined personal weather diaries and found this phrase often used as short-hand for ‘same again/ likewise/ repeats’.
ditto, ditto, ditto invites viewers to navigate discrete and rich elements, each of which shifts scale: from personal and embodied, to global systems of observation; from analogue and local, to mass-media digital infrastructure.
The exhibition unveils implicit authorities in anecdotal diaristic notations of weather, offering a point of stark contrast between this historic sense of stability and the faltering rhythms of climate breakdown that forms a backdrop to the project.
Pre-booking is not necessary, but please note that you may have to queue to enter the exhibition due to ongoing social distancing measures.
Satellites Programme is Collective’s development programme for emergent artists and producers based in Scotland.
granton:hub is pleased to announce that our community is now included in the ‘Coastal Knowledge’ project funded by the RSE Young Academy Scotland and led by Dr Niki Vermeulen (University of Edinburgh) celebrating Scotland’s (prolonged) year of coast and waters.
As a coastal community, Granton plays a part in developing diverse forms of knowledge about the coast and experiences that people have living and working on the coast.
The Recycl-Age Art exhibition was selected as part of this Coastal Knowledge project and is included in the 2021 Edinburgh Science festival, offering artists a unique opportunity to showcase their work.
Recycl-Age Art 2021 includes painters, printmakers, collage artists, ceramicists, illustrators, photographers, textile artists, jewellers, composers, poets and makers. Many artworks incorporate recycled elements, indeed several are made of 100% recycled and repurposed materials. Some artists reflect on what recycling means to them, figuratively or conceptually.
granton:hubare excited to announce more details about the granton:hub Recycl-age Art Exhibition happening July 9-11th. This event is FREE entry.
Our Recycl-Age Art Exhibition has been included in the Edinburgh Science Festival. The exhibition has also been selected to be part of the Coastal Knowledge and RSE Young Academy of Scotland project, as the satellite arts venue for a 3-day show and artist-run workshop, funded by Edinburgh Local.
The exhibition is featured in the Edinburgh Science Festival Programme under Coastal Knowledge.
The Recycl-age Art Exhibition will be held at granton:hub, Madelvic House, EH5 1HS, on 9th -11th July 2021 from 11am to 6pm each day.
There are 20+ artists exhibiting from painters, printmakers, collage artists, ceramicists, photographers, textile artists, jewellers, composers, poets and makers.
All the artworks that will be exhibited will either incorporate or be entirely made from recycled elements, or reflect on what recycling means, either figuratively or conceptually.
Find out more about the exhibition and view the artists exhibiting on the website:
This summer the City Art Centre and Ann Lanntair, Stornoway present, Eileanach: Na dealbhan aig Dòmhnall Mac a’ Ghobhainn / Islander: The Paintings of Donald Smith. Running from 29 May to 26 September
This landmark display, part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2021, is the first major retrospective of the work of Scottish artist Donald Smith (1926-2014).
Born in rural Lewis in 1926, Donald John Smith was, as Gray’s School of Art Principal Ian Fleming wrote in 1958 – ‘the outstanding student of his year … unquestionably a man of great ability as an artist’.
His painting acknowledged movements in Europe and America but remained resolutely local in its subject matter. From his studio on the west side of Lewis where he worked from 1974 to his death in 2014, his intense, lyrical images of island fishermen and women celebrate their indomitable human spirit.
In 2011, five of Donald Smith’s ambitious paintings of Stornoway harbour were exhibited at the City Art Centre in ‘Window to the West’, an examination of the relationship between the visual arts and Gaelic language and culture.
In the accompanying catalogue, Professor Murdo Macdonald suggested that a full evaluation of Donald Smith’s prolific and focused work was overdue.
Councillor Donald Wilson, Edinburgh’s Convener of Culture and Communities said: I’m delighted that the City Art Centre is able to showcase this fantastic exhibition of the rarely seen works of Donald Smith.
“Islander” will allow visitors to discover the man behind the works celebrating the power of the human spirit.”
Councillor Amy McNeese-Mechan, Edinburgh’s Vice Convener of Culture and Communities said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to showcase a Scottish artist whose work will be new to many people. It’s been fantastic to welcome our visitors back to the centre and this is another great exhibition for them to explore.
Curator David Patterson said: “The City Art Centre has made a deliberate attempt in recent years to showcase Scottish artists who have largely been overlooked in the story of Scottish art.
“We are therefore delighted to be partnering with An Lanntair in Stornoway to shine the spotlight on another unheralded painter. Donald Smith may not be well known by many, but hopefully this exhibition will go some way to rectify this and draw attention to a unique talent.”
Donald Smith was uniquely placed to connect the Gaelic world of the West with the English-speaking mainstream. He left the island to study at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, continuing to live and work in Aberdeenshire until his return to the island in 1974.
While working as a portrait painter and teacher, Smith developed a structured, contemporary approach to painting. Being one of a number of post-war Scottish artists responding to swift social and cultural change, he saw himself as an outward looking Gael, with one foot in the culture of mainland Scotland, and one in the Hebrides. As a teacher he was dedicated and inspiring.
“…it was Donald Smith who guided our first steps and when, decades later I saw his paintings, I was delighted that they more than measured up to the man and the impression he had made on my younger self.” Arthur Watson PPRSA
Based in a crofting community on the West Side of Lewis from 1974 to his death in 2014, alongside extensive local commitments including teaching, crofting, grazings committee and community council, a steady flow of portraits, large oil panels and works on paper emerged from his studio. Island fishermen and women were transformed into iconic images of working people. Working from many hundreds of drawings and photographs, balancing the competing demands of three-dimensional space and painted surface, these are intensely lyrical paintings, celebrating the indomitability of the human spirit.
The writer and educationalist R F Mackenzie, visiting Bragar in the late 1980s found “….an artist struggling to present how he sees the earthly sojourn of fishermen, big hands deftly mending nets, a grey hard life, and the primary colours of their boats and the magnificent variety of their tackle and trim, the expression on their faces like those of the Rodel tombs and the ancient Chessmen.”
The work of Donald Smith has been exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Society of Scottish Artists, Aberdeen Artists, and many other locations. In 2019 An Lanntair staged a major display of his work to great local acclaim, although sadly a wider tour had to be curtailed due to the pandemic.
He is represented in public collections including the Nuffield Foundation, the BBC, and Art for Hospitals, with many works held in private collections. This exhibition celebrates the work of Donald Smith and attempts to address the evaluation that Professor Macdonald sought.
The exhibition is accompanied by a varied programme of public events and activities, including tours, lectures and creative workshops. All events must be booked in advance. To book please visit www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk
In keeping with Government advice in order to protect and maintain the safety of our visitors and staff, the City Art Centre has introduced a range of new safety measures and procedures throughout the venue, including a one way system, installation of screens at reception, hand sanitiser stations, extra barriers and signage and staff will of course be wearing coverings while offering visitors a very warm, socially distanced welcome.
Visitors are asked to wear face coverings and to pre-book free tickets for allocated time slots in advance via edinburghmuseums.org.uk
Islander: the Paintings of Donald Smith opens on Saturday 29th May 2020, and runs until Sunday 26th September. Admission is free, pre-booking essential.
Visitors to the gallery can also enjoy the free mini display Joan Eardley (1921-1963). The works included are: Girl in a Striped Cardigan, Tenement, Old Woman Sewing and July Fields. It is part of the nationwide programme of events marking the centenary of the birth of Joan Eardley.
Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th May between 11am and 5pm
As lockdown eases there’s an exhibition opening in an unconventional gallery space in a corner of Edinburgh that might help us to pause and reflect on what has happened before we rush out and enjoy the freedom.
‘Toll’ is an artwork by Edinburgh-based artist Andrew Brooks at the new Concrete Block Gallery, which makes a single mark for each of the first year’s reported deaths involving Covid19 in the United Kingdom.
The total reported deaths involving Covid19 for the first year in the UK was 145,652 and this is the number of marks made over 52 performances by Andrew in the space, each performance representing a single week’s statistics.
Andrew began the project online on March 13th 2021, publishing the first performance video on the one-year anniversary of the first reported deaths in the UK, and will complete this work of protest and remembrance on May 13th.
Andrew Brooks said: “There are two elements to the artwork: the physical piece with the marks made on the paper and also the performance of me in the space making the work – I do it in silence and on my own. The performance of this is very much the work part of the work and is just as important as the paper.”
Each mark is made with a single brush dab and is 4cm high and made on rolls of paper 1.5m wide and 10m long. The marks fill 53 metres of paper and have used over a litre of black ink.
Each week’s statistics is filmed separately, and the longest film is 3 hours 6 minutes, representing the 6th week of Covid related deaths in the UK which was the highest toll for the year at 9,510.
Andrew continued: “The act of remembrance is very important in the way that I have gone about constructing this, attempting to recognise each one of those deaths. Understanding what one hundred and forty-five thousand marks looks like and how much time it takes to make those.
“I try and be as considered as possible when I make a mark because that is somebody – that is somebody’s family member, somebody’s friend and it’s somebody’s life that’s ended.”
Seeing Andrew’s endeavour on Instagram, documentary film maker, Dave MacFarlane of DMtwo Media, approached him to document the process of making the work.
Dave MacFarlane explained: “This recent filming project is one of those that come along and you can’t help but take notice.
“The subject matter, the artistic concept and the wider social impact were all key factors in wanting to produce this short documentary”.
Reflecting on why he decided to make the work, Andrew said: “When you think about the statistics it easily gets abstracted away but I’m doing this to make it physical and make it so that it can’t be avoided.
“It’s a visualization that really makes you understand what’s happened, over a hundred and forty-five thousand deaths, you have to realise that this is something to get angry about.
“The impetus for this was anger and that’s what’s fed it. It’s anger at Westminster and at central government. I’ve felt that they haven’t been decisive, they haven’t made strong decisions, there has been a lot of waste, that has resulted in over a hundred thousand deaths.
“This is a protest piece, this is my version of holding up a placard and standing out in the street – this is my concerted silent protest. Art can have many roles in society, and one of those is definitely protest and this is my protest”.
‘Toll’ will be exhibited for viewings at Concrete Block Gallery Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th May between 11am and 5pm.
The TUC Race Relations Committee is proud to present this year’s Roots Culture and Identity Exhibition.
A launch event will be taking place at the TUC Black Workers Conference on Friday (19 March) at 6 pm. Due to the pandemic, the exhibition is hosted online.
The exhibition aims to provide an opportunity for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BME) artists with a focus on young people, who are marginalised, face discrimination in the arts and culture sector, disproportionately impacted by austerity and now the coronavirus pandemic.
This year, the exhibition focuses on the events impacting black communities over the past year.
The artists reflect on living through the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and the impact of systemic racism on BME communities.
The move to an online exhibition has allowed us to broaden our exhibits, and for the first time, we welcome international artists. View the exhibition.
Artists in this exhibition include:
Antonietta Torsiello
Ruby Khan
Joshua Donkor
Liz Awoyemi
Raymond Daley
Samia Malik
Jamie McKinley
Zita Holbourne
Amanda Walker
Sonia E Barrett
On Friday 19th of March as part of the TUC Black Workers conference programme there will be an exhibition launch event and fringe meeting hosted by TUC Race Relations Committe and Artists’ Union England from 6pm to 7.30pm.
This will be chaired by Zita Holbourne and speakers include Theresa Easton, Organiser AUE, Antonietta Torsiello , artist and activist, AUE, Wilf Sullivan, TUC Race Relations Officer and some of the participating artists.
This May, Edinburgh’s City Art Centre presents the first major exhibition in nearly a century dedicated to the Scottish painter and print maker Charles Hodge Mackie (1862-1920), one of the most versatile artists of his generation.
Charles H. Mackie: Colour and Light is a major new exhibition that sets out to re-evaluate Mackie’s significance and contribution. Timed to coincide with the centenary of the artist’s death, it charts the progress of his career and creative development, from the rural Scottish landscapes of his youth to his spectacular late Venetian scenes.
The retrospective brings together over fifty artworks from public and private collections, including loans from the National Galleries of Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture and Perth Museum & Art Gallery.
Showcasing the breadth of Mackie’s creative vision and talents, it is the most comprehensive public display of his work in almost a century.
DCF 1.0
Born in Aldershot and brought up in Edinburgh, Mackie (above) trained at the Trustees Academy School of Art. He remained based in Edinburgh throughout his career, although he travelled often and embraced an international outlook.
As a mature artist, he worked across an impressive range of media, not only producing oil paintings and watercolours, but also murals, woodblock prints, book illustrations and sculpture.
His influences were similarly diverse, drawing inspiration from French Symbolism, the Celtic Revival movement and the landscapes of his European travels.
Mackie was well-connected and respected in contemporary artistic circles. He was close friends with E.A. Hornel and other members of the Glasgow Boys, and he met Paul Gauguin, Édouard Vuillard and the Nabis while working in France.
In the 1890s he was commissioned by Patrick Geddes to produce murals for Ramsay Garden in Edinburgh’s Old Town, as well as illustrations for the pioneering journal TheEvergreen. In later years, Mackie spent time in Yorkshire, where he joined local artists groups and provided support and tuition to the young Laura Knight.
He was a founding member and Chairman of the Society of Scottish Artists, and was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1917. He exhibited his work widely, both in Scotland and further afield. However, despite his many achievements, he has always been treated as a peripheral figure in the story of Scottish art.
Curator Dr Helen Scott said:“This exhibition is the culmination of many years of detective work.
“We’ve been able to reunite finished paintings with their preparatory studies, giving insights into Mackie’s working methods, and we’ve also been able to explore the ways in which he pursued key themes across different types of media – shifting from oils and watercolours to printmaking and back again.
“Highlights of the exhibition include several paintings that have recently undergone conservation treatment, such as Artis Ancilla, a large-scale composition of a nude reclining in the artist’s studio, which is part of the City Art Centre’s own fine art collection.
“Also featured on display is Deux Ouvrieres dans l’Atelier de Couture (Two Seamstresses in the Workroom) by Édouard Vuillard, a small oil painting gifted to Mackie by Vuillard, which is now owned by the National Galleries of Scotland. All in all, the exhibition is a wonderful, rare opportunity to celebrate Mackie’s life, connections and achievements.”
Mackie biographer and researcher Pat Clark said:“This exhibition is the first major public retrospective since the artist’s Memorial Exhibition in 1921.
“Charles H. Mackie RSA RSW was a well-respected artist in his day and well-connected in artistic circles in France and Scotland. The works on display trace his development and responses to the places he visited and the people he met.
“The exhibition will draw together all the stages of Mackie’s life and career, from early Scottish landscapes in Kirkcudbright to the magnificent large-scale oils executed in Venice. Colour and Light will be a long-overdue tribute to one of Scotland’s outstanding and unjustly neglected artists. The exhibition will showcase this achievement. It will bring me untold joy to share my passion for Mackie’s art with those who visit the City Art Centre between May and October.”
Councillor Donald Wilson, Edinburgh’s Convener of Culture and Communities said: “As we mark the centenary of Charles Mackie’s death, we are very proud to host this major study of his work in the City Art Centre.
“Bringing together over 50 artworks it promises to be a significant tribute to one of Edinburgh’s own. I’m sure ‘Colour and Light’ will captivate many visitors as well as inspire them through the accompanying programme of events and activities.”
Charles H. Mackie: Colour and Lightopens on 16 May 2020 and runs until 11 October 2020. Admission is free.
The exhibition is being presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2020, and it is accompanied by a varied programme of public events and activities.
