Scottish Art Highlights: February 2026

A trip to Glasgow Women’s Library just might make the ideal queer date this Valentine’s Day, as artist Chloe Austin responds to the organisation’s Lesbian Archive (the UK’s largest of its kind!) in her exhibition, Darling Diaphanous. Expect textiles, archival trinkets and a whole load of yearning until 28 March. 

Elsewhere in Glasgow, Street Level Photoworks showcases Scotland’s brutalist architecture through photography, illuminating the concrete expression of post-war sociopolitical ambition. The exhibition draws from photographer Simon Phillips’ documentation of 160 brutalist buildings across the country, from Inverness to Galashiels. Brutal Scotland: Scotland’s post-war modernist architecture runs from 21 February until 16 May. Four artists – including Turner Prize winner Nnena Kalu – challenge ableism in the arts sector through a new group exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts. From 7 February until 26 April, We Contain Multitudes brings together the work of Kalu, Andrew Gannon, Daisy Lafarage and Jo Longhurst – interdisciplinary artists who create from a position of disability.

Also in Dundee, writer and filmmaker Bahar Noorizadeh presents The Debtor’s Portal at Cooper Gallery. Interrogating the relationship between art and capitalism, Noorizadeh stages two experimental moving image installations, one of which is a racing game starring an anxious Elon Musk and his self-driving car/lover. The exhibition opens on 13 February and continues until 11 April.

Over to Edinburgh, where Michael Fullerton’s portraits of people seeking asylum hang at the City Art Centre. The works developed through relationships formed while Fullerton was working at the Hilltop Hotel in Carlisle, which previously served as accommodation for people seeking asylum. This solo exhibition is underpinned by Fullerton’s interest in portraiture as a means to challenge misrepresentation and bringing overlooked narratives into view. Continues until 12 April.

Towards the end of the month, at the Fruitmarket, land artist Ilana Halperin digs into the ‘incomprehensible vastness of geological time’ by connecting it to the familiarity of human experience through sculpture, drawing and photography. Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth runs from 27 February until 17 May.