Scottish Art Highlights: March 2025

Lighter days bring a feast of visual art, as exhibition openings abound this month in Edinburgh. From 8 March, celebrate the centenary of Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay with a display of his sculptures, prints and archival material at National Galleries of Scotland (Modern Two).

Then, from 15 March, head to the Talbot Rice Gallery for an exhibition exploring social justice through the diverse perspectives of working-class Welsh communities, Danish anarchists and Indigenous representatives from the Colombian Amazon. Walker & Bromwich / Searching for a Change of Consciousness is on view until 31 May.

At Stills, Centre for Photography, a group exploration of working-class creativity 36 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989-2024 opens on 21 March.

Returning for its sixteenth year, the Royal Scottish Academy’s annual survey exhibition of emerging artists and architects launches on 22 March. RSA New Contemporaries offers a glimpse of what’s next for contemporary art and architecture in Scotland, with the work of 63 art school graduates under one roof.

Atop Calton Hill, Jerwood Survey III continues at Collective Gallery, with a cohort of early-career multimedia artists grapple with a breadth of pertinent subject matters, from colonialism to climate change, sexuality to spirituality. With a ‘non-institutional’ curatorial approach, artists were nominated by established figures, such as Alberta Whittle selecting Aqsa Arif.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, Tramway screens Grenfell, artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen’s poignant response to the 2017 fire that claimed 72 lives in West London. Created to ensure the tragedy is never forgotten, the film runs in ticketed screenings from 9 to 23 March.

Also in Glasgow, 16 Collective – a feminist curatorial collective with a gallery space – presents Ranters, a solo exhibition by Glasgow-based artist Jude Browning. Drawing inspiration from the 17th-century mystical anarchist sect known as the Ranters, Browning explores feminist vocality in political resistance. Look out for the two live performances and the workshop that accompany the exhibition, on display from 7 to 23 March.