On the new Ingleby Gallery

I can’t say, in all honesty, that I’m devastated to wave goodbye to August... A month of slow-walking crowds and over-excited thespians transforms me into one of those sour, proud-local types who can’t be doing with all this festival malarkey. Time to draw breath I feel.

On a more positive note, I am currently in awe of the new Ingleby Gallery. The space itself is incredible, and redefines what it can mean to be a commercial gallery in Edinburgh. Rather than the stereotypical twee of the Dundas St offerings, the Ingleby presents a vast white space with the scope and scale to truly showcase the work of interesting contemporary artists. The debut show of Susan Collis is a case in point, gemstones made into rawl plugs and white gold screws transforming both the precious and the mundane to create a series of charming, subtle works.

From a personal point of view, the space has an added poignancy in its positioning in the building of the old Venue. I had a bit of a moment, sitting in the upstairs gallery and pondering the collision of worlds evinced by the view of Waverley’s girders glimpsed across the pristine white and finished wood of the genteel gallery surrounds: industry meets high culture in the shell of a former sweaty nightclub. The Venue has truly grown up, and it is impossible when in the space to gel the new environs with what it used to be. It’s nice, though, to think that this beautiful gallery, with its meticulously displayed work, was once the scene of our misspent youth.