Andy Warhol, Sound-Reactive Visuals and Show and Tell: This Week in Scottish Art
From legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to the just-graduated Sonia Gavrilovic Hufton, there's a variety of art to see and things to do in Scottish art this week.
We begin with a show that opened earlier this week at DJCAD's Visual Research Centre inside Dundee Contemporary Arts. Aerial - Memory - Resistance is formed from a range of materials (archival photography, artworks, interviews) centring on resistance within, representations of conflict, as well as instances of resistance. Put together by artist Valentina Bonizzi, there’s a special emphasis on aerial images, and “how memory and methods of re-presentation can challenge what constitutes territory, identity and resistance”. Aerial - Memory - Resistance is open until 6 March. There will be an interdisciplinary panel discussion on the themes of the presentation on Wednesday 4 March 5-7pm, full details and booking information can be found here.
Staying in Dundee, tomorrow sees an event to accompany the current members’ show at GENERATORprojects. It’s a “Members’ Show and Tell”, described as “an informal chance to get to know other Members and their work,” as well as simply see the show itself with the gallery open later than usual. As always, GENERATOR are aware that their space can get a bit chilly, so will be providing hot drinks and soup. Members' Show & Tell takes place from 7-9pm on Wed 25 Feb; GENERATOR's members' show runs until Sun 1 Mar.
'Cartographer' by Valentina Bonizzi, part of Aerial - Memory - Resistance.
Debris and Phenomena, the first solo exhibition by DJCAD graduate David Lemm, is into its final fortnight at Edinburgh Printmakers, closing 7 March. The work in the exhibition was produced by Lemm while on residency on Eigg. Lemm continues his experimentation into producing narrative using only abstract and graphic elements. More specifically, coming from his time on Eigg, Lemm uses (now obsolete) sea charts as the basis of his much of his new body of work. There will be a closing event on 7 March, involving a (little) bit of (very very mild) orienteering; all the information and details on that walkabout can be found here.
For anyone with the time and funds to make a daytrip to see some world class art, the Artist Room for Robert Mapplethorpe is open from this Saturday in Clydebank Museum and Art Gallery. The Artist Rooms initiative extends a collection of works jointly owned by the Tate and National Galleries of Scotland to venues across the UK. In this instance, there is the rare chance to see a series of iconic Mapplethorpe self-portraits, and it’s the first time some of these shots have been displayed outside of the Tate Modern in London. There are also portraits of some of Mapplethorpe’s contemporaries, including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and Iggy Pop. The Artist Room at Clydebank is open from Sat 28 Feb until 23 May – here is the one and only Patti Smith talking about her relationship with Mapplethorpe, which she recounts in detail in her beautiful book, Just Kids.
In The Old Hairdresser’s in Glasgow this week is the first of a series of five solo exhibitions by recent painting and printmaking graduates. This Sunday (1 Mar), the Perm series kicks off with 'Don't put your shoes on my table', a show by Sonia Gavrilovic Hufton. Gavrilovic Hufton combines assemblage, collage and expressive drawing techniques in her work, blends complex composition and considered cluttering, and brings together an interest in the illusory depth of images and the tactile allure of textured fabrics and smooth buttons.
Finally this week, as part of the Crossing the Line strand at the Glasgow Film Festival, the latest AlgoRhythm event will take place on Thursday at the Art School. Crossing art and music, “practitioners from a variety of creative fields who specialise in the use of technology in their practice” will take part in an event that will be part live performance, part installation and an exploration of the relationship “between sonic and visual art practices” with sound-reactive visual work. Entry is £5 (£3 for GSA students), and the afterparty kicks off straight after the event, which is at the Art School's Assembly Hall from 7:30-11pm.