Scottish Art Highlights: May 2026

At the Common Guild, Glasgow, Polish photographer Joanna Piotrowska presents her first exhibition in Scotland. A moment of darkness at noon furthers Piotrowska’s investigations into the unconscious through Jungian psychoanalysis. Nude portraits, landscapes and collages made up of fragments from her family’s archive conjure a hazy space between memory, dream and the unconscious. The exhibition opens on 23 May and continues until 18 July.

Also in Glasgow, Street Level Photoworks at Trongate 103 shows Marc Davenant’s documentary photography series that captures the stories of unhoused people. The exhibition, Outsiders, emphasises governmental neglect and substandard housing conditions by capturing “the full spectrum of homelessness”. Outsiders is on view until 13 May.

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Stills exhibits The Queering of Photography by Åsa Johannesson. Focused on the possibilities of queer documentary, Johannesson reimagines the conventions of classical studio portraiture to illuminate overlooked queer gestures and aesthetics within photographic traditions and histories. The exhibition closes on 27 June.

At Dovecot Studios, The Biba Story: 1964-1975 showcases the international fashion brand’s rise to fame and revolutionary role in the 1960s and 70s aesthetic. The Biba Story stars over 100 vintage items, from leopard print coats to sequinned bodices, and is on view until 27 June.