Art Events

Art

Glasgow has a thriving contemporary art scene. The last few decades has seen a generation of internationally renowned artists emerge from the city, who have received an incredible number of nominations for Britain's top visual art award, the Turner prize. Glasgow-based or born winners have included Douglas Gordon, Simon Starling, Richard Wright, Martin Creed, Susan Philipsz and Martin Boyce, while artists Karla Black, Nathan Coley, Cathy Wilkes, Christine Borland, Jim Lambie, Luke Fowler, David Shrigley and Lucy Skaer have all lived and worked in Glasgow and have all been nominated in recent years. Art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist dubbed it the "Glasgow miracle" – a term not well liked by local artists.

A reason for this vibrant art scene might be Glasgow’s world-renowned School of Art, which attracts some of the brightest young artists from across the UK and beyond. Many of these graduating artist set up practices in Glasgow as, like most post-industrial cities, it offers a wealth of spaces and studios for artist to make and display their work.

Glasgow’s multi-tiered gallery system also cultivates mutual support between artists at different stages in their careers. Galleries such as Transmission and SWG3 offer space and opportunity for emerging artists to display their work from art school onwards, while the Modern Institute hosts more established home-grown talent alongside big names from the international art scene.

The most significant visual arts festival in the city is Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts, a mammoth biennial festival of contemporary art. Over two weeks every two years, GI sees the city’s galleries and art spaces showcasing some of the finest contemporary artists working in Europe and abroad, including Jeremy Deller, Wolfgang Tillmans and Flokert de Jong, with one of the festival’s key aims being to “support and collaborate with local artists and arts organisations to create ambitious new works as well as commission new work by artists working internationally.”

If you’re putting on a exhibition, let us know at events@theskinny.co.uk.