Art Highlights: November 2018

Exhibition Highlights

It’s been four months since a second tragic fire destroyed the Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh Building, and forced a host of neighbouring buildings – which many felt to be the heart of the visual art scene in the city – to close indefinitely. But last month, after being closed for what has felt like a lifetime, the Centre for Contemporary Arts reopened. Be sure not to miss their first exhibition: Jonas Staal's The Scottish-European Parliament, which transforms a decommissioned oil rig in the North Sea into a new transnational parliament, assembling pan-European organisations with Scottish civil platforms, social movements and political parties to envision a future European Union from a Scottish point of view. Running until 11 November, you need to be quick off the mark to catch this exhibition before it’s gone (much like our European status itself).

In Edinburgh, the newly re-branded Talbot Rice Gallery ended their October by opening two exhibitions, both of which run into the new year. Tremble Tremble by Jesse Jones is an incredible performance piece not to be missed: the artwork’s new world order is feminist, uncompromising, magical and mythical. Alongside Jones’ work, At the Gates brings together work by Maja Bajevic, Georgia Horgan, Navine G. Khan-Dossos, Teresa Margolles, Olivia Plender and Suzanne Treister. Inspired by the tidal wave of change that has been sweeping the world, At the Gates brings together artists whose voices have amplified the global struggle towards female self-empowerment, and, in the case of Ireland’s historic fight against the Eighth Amendment, right to bodily self-determination. Shown alongside Jones’ piece, the implication is clear and empowering: “tremble, tremble, the witches have returned”.

Also in Edinburgh, The Fruitmarket have just opened a solo exhibition by Emma Hart. This will be the penultimate exhibition before the gallery closes for expansion later next year, so we’d advise you to get yourself along to the space before it becomes a building site. Hart’s work is often badly-behaved and messy, challenging assumptions and stereotypes in her quest to make art to which everyone can relate. Her first exhibition in Scotland has seen the creation of a series of entirely new work.

Residencies

Cove Park have several paid residencies available for visual artists (as well as for experimental filmmakers, writers, designers and more) with a variety of deadlines throughout December. The spaces available offer artists the opportunity to work in incredible environments on the West Coast of Scotland, not too far from Glasgow, with the important time and headspace to create works. Deadline: 10 December

Another unique rural venue, The Scottish Sculpture Workshop, sitting at the foot of the Grampian Mountains, is offering artists of any practice the opportunity to take part in their winter residency programme. The programme is lightly thematic, offering a loose reflective framework within which artists can spend a month working on the development of their practice – whether this is for production, research or experimentation. The deadline is at the start of this month, so you need to be quick to apply. Deadline: 13 November

Finally, Hospitalfield in Arbroath are once again opening up their doors to artists of all backgrounds in their brilliant interdisciplinary residency programme. This programme is highly international and open to those working across the arts who recognise that they require some time to focus on the development of their work. For individuals or collaborative groups it can be a test bed for developing their practice and a scenario to concentrate on a specific project. Deadline: 12 November

Awards and Call for Entries

Alight 2019, a celebration of contemporary art in Scotland organised by Visual Arts Scotland, are seeking applications from artists of any background to take part in the upcoming exhibition. Both emerging and established contemporary artists, designers and craft makers, members and non-members are invited to showcase new and unseen work. Works selected through the open submission are also eligible for an ever-growing list of awards and funds, selected by judges once the exhibition is hung. Deadline: 19 November