This Week in Scottish Art: 24-30 January

Tue 24 Jan: Six Foot Gallery

Six Foot Gallery is having a closing party for Render this evening between 6 and 9pm. On display are “please do touch” sculptures by Craig Black, which meditate on love, loss and personal need for comfort, a selection of photographs by Louise Dautheribes Mckerl from her travels titled Curious Wonders, and collages by Richard Martin seeking and utilising images in constant, familiar, and disjunctive, uneasy ways.  

Wed 25 Jan: The Lighthouse

Visit Disappearing Glasgow in Gallery Two at the Lighthouse to see a multimedia exhibition by filmmaker and photographer Chris Leslie capturing changes in the city’s urban landscape. A book of the same title accompanies the show. The Lighthouse is open 10.30am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and noon till 5pm on Sunday.

Thu 26 Jan: CCA and Very Friendly

the breath of the sheep and the sea is infinitely beautiful is the first comprehensive survey in the UK by German filmmaker Lutz Mommartz. The exhibition includes experimental analogue works from the artist’s archive. Mommartz's works often feature the figure, its presence, absence and occasional disembodiment. The artist also regularly collaborated with other artists including Joseph Beuys, as well as a host of actors and musicians.

Tonight’s event in the CCA Cinema from 7 to 9pm will feature an introduction by curator Marcus Jack, a screening, a performance by Carrie Skinner that was newly commissioned in response to Mommartz’s archive, and a Q&A session with the filmmaker himself, archivist Stefan Silies and Jack. Sadly, this event is now fully booked, but call the CCA box office at 0141 352 4900 for a chance to secure a space on the waiting list.

Keep the Pavement Dry, a show by artist Joanne Dawson, previews tonight from 7 to 9pm at Very Friendly. The exhibition – running until 10 February – showcases Dawson's multimedia and site-specifc practice. Often combining soft sculpture, video and highly referential and lyrical responses to space and place, the Very Friendly Gallery (next to SWG3) features an architectural intervention especially for the occasion.

Fri 27 Jan: Mary Mary, CCA, Modern Institute, Edinburgh Printmakers and EMBASSY

Curve of a hill like the curve of a green shoulder previews tonight at Mary Mary from 6 to 8pm. This is a group show including sculptural work by Aleana Egan, Mary Heilmann, Judith Hopf, Amanda Ross-Ho and Erika Vogt. All pieces explore the existence of, and relationship between, objects and interior spaces, namely studios and the experience of other artistic environments and elements of performance. This exhibition is on display until 11 Mar.  

Forms of Action opens at the CCA tonight from 7 to 9pm with work by Kim Dhillon, Adelita Husni-Bey, Daniel Godínez Nivón, Katia Kameli, Dimitri Launder, Victoria Lomasko and Asunción Molinos Gordo. Works by seven international artists demonstrate developments in socially engaged art and changes in the use and role of an art practice. Forms of Action looks at how art and creativity may be implemented to address issues in our society and perhaps inspire motivated for social change. This is part of a wider discussion concerning a shifting paradigm for art’s identity in which art is not a result presented to an audience, but a means for transformation in calamitous times.

The Gap Between the Fridge and the Cooker opens at the Modern Institute from 7 to 9pm. This exhibition with work by over twenty artists including Robert Mapplethorpe, Gordon Matta-Clark and David Shrigley will run until 11 Mar in the gallery's Aird’s Lane space.

There are two new exhibitions previewing at Edinburgh Printmakers this week: Process & Possibilities and Firedamp: Revisiting the Flood, both from 7.30 to 9pm. The former exhibition is part of a wider programme celebrating Edinburgh Printmakers’ 50-year anniversary; for Process & Possibilities, prints following traditional printmaking techniques, but championing experimentation, will be selected from Edinburgh Printmakers’ archive of over 10,000 works.

The latter exhibition by Sean Caulfield will fluctuate between abstraction and representation in its concern with transformations in our environments. Changes in industrial and urban landscapes are the main catalysts in Caulfield’s work, but the artist aims to challenge viewers regarding our roles as individuals and members of society. Caulfield will also give a talk from 6.30 to 7.30pm before the preview; this talk is free, but places must be booked in advance here on Eventbrite. Both exhibitions are on until 15 Apr; visit Tuesday to Saturday between 10am and 6pm.

Also in Edinburgh, I can’t be inside and outside at the same time previews at EMBASSY Gallery from 7 to 10pm. This is a group show with work by Alima Askew, Gordon Douglas and Mette Sterre. The exhibition will run till 19 February.

Sat 28 Jan: Glasgow Project Room and Ingleby Gallery

glint by Lizzie Hudson closes today at Glasgow Project Room at 103 Trongate. Hudson references the bollard, in its wide and varied availability in urban space, as a decision made by outdated micro-managers controlling public space. The artist entertains questions regarding a consequential top-down trajectory of influence perhaps outdated in a reality largely dominated by user-generated content in contrast. Visit today between 11am and 5pm.

Today is your last chance to see David Austen at Ingleby Gallery. This satellite exhibition featuring Austen’s work on display at the gallery’s both at last year’s Miami Art Base is only available by appointment.

Sun 29 Jan: Royal Scottish Academy and GSA Exhibitions

The David Michie Gift, Willie Rodger RSA’s Wee Prints and The Artist Traveller are all closing at the Royal Scottish Academy on the Mound in Edinburgh. The Artist Traveller includes works made by artists funded by the Academy during their travels; the artists included are Kate Fahey, Stephanie Mann, Rebecca Milling, Kyle Noble and Murray Robertson. This show coincides with The David Michie Gift showing paintings by the late artist, who was a strong advocate of travel for artists. Wee Prints includes Rodger’s Wee series originally exhibited in 1990 in The Wee Picture Show. The maxim “It’s no whit ye hae; it’s whit ye dae wi’ whit ye hae” inspired a whole series of prints featuring figures based on people observed by Rodger and the artist himself, which have come to represent an entire community of characters. Visit all three from noon to 5pm.

Print Print Print, a group show of prints by the Glasgow School of Art faculty, also closes today at the GSA's Reid Building. Visit the ground-floor corridor gallery between 10am and 4.30pm.

Mon 30 Jan: CCA

The CCA is hosting Cities Discussion Group: Etel Adnan – On Cities & Women from 6 to 8pm in its Clubroom. The discussion group will focus on Adnan’s book Of Cities & Women (Letters to Fawwaz), a selection of letters from different cities Adnan visits and lives in during her travels. The letters are moving descriptive encounters of place revealing personal insights about the self, feminism, loss, politics and exile.This event is free, unticketed and all ages are welcome. No booking is necessary, but attendees are advised to read a portion of Adnan’s book prior the event, details on the event page.