This Week in Scottish Art: Glasgow Art Crawl

This week, catch new exhibitions from CCA, the Cooper Gallery and Glasgow Sculpture Studios, ahead of the latest edition of Glasgow Artist Guild on Sunday.

Article by Adam Benmakhlouf | 19 Jan 2016

Kicking off this week's events is an exhibition opening at Glasgow's Six Foot Gallery tonight (Tue 19 Jan) from 5–7pm. Six Foot preview the work of London-based artist Terri Long, who has spent a period of residence in the gallery. As part of this project, Long has extended her interest in drawing and the interaction of natural and synthetic forms to a medium-based exploration of the embroidery within Glasgow's museums and galleries. Titled The Prop Body, the exhibition continues until 31 January.

Stephanie Mann features in our showcase this month – take a look at her work here – coinciding with her inclusion in new group show 'The transparent tortoise shell and the un-ripe umbrella', which opens this week in the Glasgow Sculpture Studios. Mann works across sculpture, video and performance, working with made and found objects in a brightly-coloured, ‘radiating’ aesthetic as described in our review of her 2014 exhibition at Summerhall. She’s working alongside five other artists, all of whom share a concern with ‘everyday objects and commodities’, as well as the still life genre. The opening event takes place on Friday, from 6.30 to 8.30pm; the show continues until 5 March.

In CCA this Friday, there are two new exhibitions previewing from 7–9pm. In the Intermedia, there is Christopher MacInnes, fresh from a five-star show at Generator Projects in Dundee. For this new project Retina Gothic, he continues to delve into the twin poles of digital and physical presence. Downstairs in the main space, Glasgow-based painter Merlin James unveils a new set of works. In his writings and works, James reflects on the historical and contemporary culture surrounding painting. Aptly titled Long Game, James' career and practice has taken the form of a dedicated and medium-specific enquiry into painting itself.

Also on Friday, The Modern Institute hosts Jack McConville’s exhibition preview and book launch from 7–9pm. Working primarily in drawing and painting, McConville’s work doesn’t sit easily in either category. Image references are drawn from digital sources, and there can be references to celebrity scandal narratives, rendered in linear and gestural marks.

In Dundee this Friday, the Cooper Gallery unveil their new exhibition ALL SYSTEMS … go, a group exhibition of moving image works, screened in synchronisation. Cooper has brought together emerging artist Dominic Watson with established artists Liam Gillick & Anton Vidokle and esteemed filmmaker Miranda Pennell. In the show, there is Watson’s video of himself pulling Jagger moves in the Glenkiln Sculpture Park (home of Henry Moore’s Standing Figure), set beside Pennell’s black and white film of ‘the perfected choreography of a military drill’. Watch A Guiding Light by Gillick & Vidokle below – the piece is a 7-camera documentation of a conversation between art professionals. ALL SYSTEMS... go continues until 27 Feb.

This Saturday night, there is a new exhibition opening in the Glasgow Project Room, which brings together jeweller Helen C Hemsley with sculptor Hrafnhildur Halldórsdóttir. The duo took part in a "collaboration of sorts", with the intention of combining a ‘fine art’ concern with space and a design-oriented interest in craft. Practically speaking, they have been exchanging incomplete projects and have planned a week of working together in the Project Room. This Saturday, the show will open from 7–8pm, and continues to 29 January.

Finally, this Sunday sees the latest edition of Glasgow Artist Guild, which brings together two art practitioners to each present a talk on their work. Douglas Morland’s work spans sculpture, painting and video, with a concern in ‘mishearing or mistranslation’, and more broadly the ‘transmission and reception of information’. Also presenting, Cinzia Cremona will discuss her practice-led research in video performance, which broaches more general issues of screen-based or mediated communications. Talks will begin at 7pm in the Saramago Bar in the CCA.

http://theskinny.co.uk/art