This Week in Scottish Art: Good Press, Jarman Award

We start this week with a final chance for any experienced road cyclists out there to take part in Ghost Peloton. It's the latest of a series of projects by arts group NVA grouped under the heading Speed of Light – a previous iteration involved runners with lights fixed to their gear. This time cyclists will be lit up as they cycle at the Whisky Bond in Glasgow on 12 & 13 Nov. Application form here; applications close on Tue 6 Oct at 5pm.

Also today at 6.30pm, the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh host a panel discussion on the relevance of making sculpture and how to relate to other forms of art making. It’s a good opportunity to hear teacher-artists Phyllida Barlow and Kate Davis speak about this topic, but you’ll need to act fast for free tickets – available here. 

It’s a good week for Good Press in Glasgow, who are celebrating their 4th birthday this Wednesday and launching a new exhibition and publication on Saturday. Always a banner event when a nice arts organisation makes it to four years old, from 11am until 9pm they will quite rightly be having “a casual social of sorts”. As if you needed more reason to be happy about their birthday, to show their gratitude for all the zine-shoppers, there will be an unprecedented “buy three things, get the FOURTH free!” bargain on offer on Wednesday.

Then on Saturday, Good Press host an exhibition by Portland-based artist Dino Matt, and we’ve been instructed to “expect drawing, painting and ceramics.” There will be an opening from 3-6pm, and the launch of a new publication about the artist.

Also on Wednesday night, there is a touring artist film event in CCA, Greener on the Other Side. Featuring a selection of artists born around the year 1980, the dominant interests include capitalism, consumerism, masculinity, digital romance and surveillance, in a rough attempt to trace patterns of concern. It takes place from 7pm in the CCA Clubroom and has been curated by the Queenspark Railway Club and Greener... creator Clemens Wilhelm.

From exercise to indulgence, Six Foot Gallery will host an art bake sale this Thursday (8 Nov). Capitalising on Bake Off fervour, artists are invited to create baked sculptures and everyone is welcome to contribute to the Art Fund and eat the artwork. Taking place from 5pm this Thursday, all proceeds will go to supporting UK museums and galleries.

Glasgow is one of the stops on the prestigious Jarman Award’s UK Tour this year, with the award tour making a stop at the CCA this Thursday at 6:30pm. In association with Channel 4 and Whitechapel Gallery in London, the award will travel between 12 major art venues across the UK showcasing pieces by each of the shortlisted artists. After the screenings, one of the participants – Alia Syed – will discuss her work Points of Departure. Unlike some other venues, the CCA has made this a free event, so book online or call 0141 352 4900.

On Friday in Edinburgh, there is the launch party for Simulacra and the Scarrow Press at the Bargain Spot space on Lothian Road. Marking the beginning of two projects, the Scarrow Press will produce its first publication, a pocket zine called Simulacra. Its remit is “new and unpublished art photography … you can hold it in your hand [this zine], slip it in your pocket, or just contemplate the images.”

We conclude with another competition, this time in Edinburgh, with the BP Portrait Award. For the first time this year, artists were asked to submit their work digitally, making for a much more diverse exhibition than in previous years. Winners included 35-year-old Matan Ben Cnaan's allegorical portrait of his friend and step-daughter, and Michael Gaskell’s painting of his niece at 14, with “influences from Vermeer and Dutch seventeenth-century paintings”. The exhibition is open from 10 Oct until 28 Feb 2016 at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.