This Week in Scottish Art: 5-11 July

Tue 5 Jul: Still House Plants

Glasgow artschool postmodern power balladeers Still House Plants launch a new cassette in association with Greater Lanarkshire Auricular Research Council. Working with the band, GLARC begin the first of their open research projects into "environment and noise". Fred Paton Day Centre, 7pm, £5

Thu 7 Jul: Good Press, Generator Projects

This Thursday sees a dual launch of the magazine Merzbau in Glasgow's Good Press and in its home town of Bologna, Italy with the Italian launch streamed at Good Press. Merzbau itself is an "open, diversified and collective collaboration", including "writing, poetry, photography, illustration, video art (and) performance''. This issue attempts to document seven people's "virtual itinerary" over 21 days. The event begins at 5pm.

Also on Thursday is the preview for Residual in Dundee's Generator Projects. Six artists will "explore the fragmented aftermath of ritualists and communal happenings," with live performances taking place throughout the run of the show. Residual opens on Thursday evening 7-9pm, and runs until 31 July. 

Fri 8 Jul: Openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh

From 5-6pm in Fruitmarket Gallery, in advance of the opening of Damián Ortega's exhibition preview from 6-8pm, the artist will present a conversation with the gallery director. One of the best known Mexican artists of his generation, his work focuses on action rather than object. For his Edinburgh show, the theme is forces of nature, "wind, water, earth and fire", expressed mostly in clay sculptures. Register for free tickets here; the talk will also be streamed via Periscope here.

Across town at Collective Gallery, Jennifer Bailey's Will I Make a Good Father, Mother, Sister? also opens from 6pm. Bailey considers the context of herself as a producer of art within "patriarchal structure, desire, capital and paid work." For this exhibition, she presents a new body of work including sculptures and a wall drawing "point[ing] towards our bodily experience of materials and residue of work." Open until 4 September.

[Damián Ortega's EAF show opens this weekend]

In Glasgow from 5-7pm, the Royal Glasgow Institute presents the new work of their selected graduates from Glasgow School of Art's class of 2015, including photographer of Sebastian Mary Tay, who makes large scale photographic prints of pastel-hued smoky gradients (reviewed here), and portraitist Rebecca Snow who was selected for her paintings of fellow students.

Just up the hill a bit, from 6-8pm Glasgow School of Art previews its latest show Hosts and Visitors. Glasgow-based artists Birthe Jorgensen and Sogol Mabadi take as their inspiration the subjects of diaspora and migration, and this latest project emerges from their "discussions of language and identity and how their art practices creatively engage with it."

Heading east, there's a celebration of 30 years of the Dovehill WASPS studios. Starting from 6-9pm on Friday night, the residents will give a three-day exhibition, opening all three floors of the building to the public and displaying work from the jewellers, photographer and painters working there. Continuing through the weekend, titled 100 Paintings, 20 Artists, 30 Years, it's open from 12-5pm Saturday and Sunday.

Finally this Friday New Glasgow gallery Very Friendly (next door to SWG3) launch fine art silversmith Kathleen Reilly's solo exhibition of new work, coming from techniques like "forging, spinning,  and water jet cutting in silver, stainless steel, glass and ceramic." The show's title – Waiting for a Table – hints towards her recent collection of "subversive tablewares" that saw a range of new functional/ornamental additions to the dining table.

Sat 9 Jul: Edinburgh Printmakers market & more

From 11am-5pm in Edinburgh Printmakers, there's this summer's Makers Market, where there's an eclectic mix of different craftmakers showing jewellery, ceramics, paintings, zines and more. 

It's back to Good Press on Saturday, with artist Ewan McCaffrey's Smoke Breaks for Non-Smokers. He's continuing his performance and print based project on the everyday life and role of the artist that he discussed when interviewed about his recent degree show work. From 3-6pm, there will be new multiples and editions by McCaffrey as well as "drinks and great company."

Up to Glasgow Sculpture Studios for the preview of Making the Bed, Laying the Table by Katie Schwab. Thinking through communal living, and the possibilities of individuating living space, Schwab presents a new collection of works made collectively and collaboratively with artists Florence Dwyer and Simon Worthington.

Sun 10 Jul: JVA, Transmission gig party

Head over to CCA for the last day of the Jerwood Film Awards (reviewed here). Two very different takes are given on this year's heading of Borrowed Time, with the artists each looking to power plants, one in Battersea, another in Fukushima.

In Transmission Gallery this Sunday, there's a BYOB all ages gig party put together by Spite House, with four bands lined up including the recently-featured Kaspar Hauser. Upstairs, the Transmission Members' Show continues, so it's a good day for a double-headed art excursion.