Scottish Art Highlights: December 2025
December offers Afrofuturist photography, a meditative film about land dispossession and a survey of Scottish portraiture
December marks the final chance to catch Shen Xin’s solo presentation at Collective, Edinburgh. Rooted in themes of migration and belonging, Highland Embassy showcases two films and a series of paintings by the Isle of Skye-based artist. The exhibition is part of We Contain Multitudes, a project that creates systematic change for disabled people in Scotland’s visual arts sector. Highland Embassy is on show until 21 December.
From 13 December, Glasgow artist Jamie Cooper presents LEVELLING UP at Fruitmarket, Edinburgh. Satirically named in homage to the Tory party’s policy that targeted 'left-behind' towns, LEVELLING UP is an audio-visual installation featuring sculptures that critique the privatisation of public services. LEVELLING UP lights up Fruitmarket’s Warehouse until 18 January.
At Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh presents Afrofuturist photography that exposes forgotten histories in the cities of Glasgow, Bradford, Belfast and Cardiff. Alongside portraits by emerging UK photographers, Muluneh’s work is at the heart of Nationhood: Memory and Hope, a touring exhibition that celebrates diversity in the UK. On view until 8 February.
At Timespan in Helmsdale, Alex Sarkisian presents kar (Քար), a film work that traces the survival of Western Armenian places through a journey to the artist’s ancestral home, Kharpert. Kar traverses monasteries, cities and landscapes within the borders of modern-day Turkey to illuminate structural erasure through military occupation and neglect. As part of the gallery’s programme on land justice, Timespan places Kar in dialogue with the Highland Clearances and the dispossession of land in Palestine. The exhibition continues until 1 March.
Unmasked: Exploring Scottish Portraiture at City Art Centre interrogates the dynamic between sitter and artist through a range of media. From oil on canvas to photobooth, the exhibition spans 400 years of portraiture in Scotland, starring works by contemporary artist Sekai Machache and the Scottish Van Dyck, George Jamesone. It’s here until 31 May.