Stephanie Cairns @ National Gallery of Modern Art

The modesty of Stephanie Cairns' work at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is more a reflection of the gallery’s somewhat stilted gesture than the humbling affect a large institution might have on a young artist. Cairns seems unfazed. There’s no sign of buckling under pressure or self conscious departures from past methods of working. Clear-headed and assured, she sticks to what she does best, despite the restrictions of showing in a gallery ill-suited to her way of working.

At the end of a hall on the ground floor, Cairns has installed a series of sculptural compositions. Made from found objects, each is a simple construction using two or three different components. A plastic wheel from a toilet roll dispenser lies atop an aluminum frame; a slide carousel sits in a metal trolley attached to the wall.

“Every Tuesday I go round all the charity shops I can think of in Edinburgh,” she explains. Buying whatever takes her fancy, she returns to her studio where she documents the objects – a reflective windscreen cover, a trampoline, a plastic bathroom cabinet – and either packs them away for later or incorporates them into one of her compositions. Asked what makes her pick certain objects from the eccentric array available in most second hand shops, she describes an intuitive process. An unconscious, aesthetic compulsion that is perhaps more evident to the onlooker than Cairns herself, there’s an obvious love of coloured plastic and aluminum frames. Perhaps just a passing phase, next week might bring other material obsessions.

With an ongoing residency at Telford College in Edinburgh, Cairns is busy developing her practice under the scrutiny of students and tutors. She describes it as a kind of trade-off where students are invited to discuss and critique her work, and meanwhile she gets use of a studio and the college’s facilities.

Also a member of Superclub Studios, she’ll have more than enough room for her expanding charity shop collection – for the time being, at least. Having graduated only last summer, Cairns is already showing the maturity of an established artist with a passion for making and exhibiting. One to look out for.