Own Art @ Christmas
The high street is mobbed; queues are hell; you’re overspending and still buying crap – it’s nearly Christmas! Sound about right? Apparently Scandinavian Christmases are the thing this year, after watching all those episodes of The Killing. So we should make like they do a bit further up north and go for a homemade holiday, not a commercial break. Think individual, personal gifts instead of more socks and jumpers. Gingerbread houses, that sort of thing. (Flat-packed is cheating.) To be honest, though, who has the time to make everything (except Kirstie Allsop)?
This is where artists are one step ahead. Several galleries are already ladling out the mulled wine, ready to welcome you to Christmas shows where you can find presents that will delight all your pals, and not a Lynx gift set among them.
Already half in darkness up north, they’ve cracked on with the festivities, just to keep out the cold. Peacock Visual Arts’ exhibition, Grotto, features hundreds of A4-sized grottos from across the globe, in the form of paintings, prints, photographs, collages and sculpture. Work by the local community hangs alongside international artists and includes Ralph Steadman, Barbara Rae and Toby Paterson. They’ve also produced a limited edition Christmas card which you can buy online.
At DCA, it’s Christmas business as usual, with their annual Winter Exhibition in the Print Space – a great selection of artists’ prints, all produced in their onsite Print Studio. The DCA shop will have the usual huge range of arty Christmas gifts, including books, jewellery, and crafts from Scotland and beyond. When you’ve emptied your pockets, be sure to head into the main gallery to see the show by Florida-born artist, Trisha Baga.
Named after Madonna’s 1983 hit single, Holiday will take the form of a chaotic landscape made from luminous paint, fake flowers, charity shop finds and video projections. Baga’s installation Plymouth Rock, considers the famous pilgrim landing site through Chinese takeaway menus and a recital of a Justin Bieber Christmas song. Just the ticket to transport you to warmer, cheerier climes.
Meanwhile, back in Scotland, Glasgow Print Studio promises a “veritable cornucopia” of gifts in their annual Christmas show. With works by Elizabeth Blackadder, John Byrne, Fiona Watson, Adrian Wizniewski, Scott Campbell and Ashley Cook, it’s the place to shop for your more discerning relatives’ gifts. An open submission of Members’ prints will be on show on the ground floor gallery, with invited artists upstairs. You can also get your hands on a range of printed tote bags (everyone loves a tote bag) and hand printed cards, which are exclusive to GPS.
If you’re not completely art-ed out and mince pie-faced by this point, you should head over to Ingleby Gallery, whose clean lines and simple décor are very Scandinavian, by the way. Currently showing in the gallery, Yorkshire-born artist and writer, Harland Miller’s work is extremely covetable, as well as being quite interesting. Miller makes paintings that look like battered, second-hand Penguin paperbacks – the kind your mum used to hide away but now puts on the coffee table because they’re ‘vintage.’ That very British nostalgia is turned back on itself in Miller’s work, though – punchy titles such as Grimsby: The World Is Your Whelk, and Heroin, It’s What Your Right Arm’s For, seem to say that you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Pipe Down Cunt, may not be quite what your gran was expecting, but at least it’s not more soap, eh? Ingleby’s ‘Christmas-comes-early’ promotion offers a different print at a discounted price every day during the first week of December.