Opening at Edinburgh’s Summerhall in January, a show of contemporary Scottish art entitled Archipelago, runs until the 17th March.

David Blyth contributed two rooms full of new print works, The exhibition also features the work of painter Derrick Guild, from Perth, and Dunfermline’s Alan Grieve.

The exhibition came about from preliminary conversations at Gray’s around the work of the German biologist and illustrator Ernst Haeckel, and his semi-legendary two volumes of botanical illustration Kunstformen der Natur done in 1899-1904. From these early discussions the artists began to think of the idea of an Archipelago as a metaphor for independent art practices that take place away from the familiar venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The contributions of each artist can be read as a solo show, but the exhibition is better followed when the viewer consider the parallels between the three visually different but subtly inter-linked practices on display. From Alan Grieve’s scabrous humour, derived from observations of everyday life and legends from the worlds of football, clubbing and music in Dunfermline, to Blyth’s subtle, beautifully produced new suite of prints focusing on an imaginative response to landscape, symbol and material, to Guild’s cannily arranged visual tricks and puns, orientated around a passionate engagement with the history of art and the natural world, this is a show which is a statement of attitude as much as anything else. It is an exhibition that offers a view of art practices taking place in the so-called “peripheries” of Scotland and suggest that such practices will become ever more important in a rapidly changing landscape of cultural funding and consumption.

The exhibition  can be seen at Summerhall’s Meadows gallery. The show is accompanied by a full colour 48 page catalogue, with an essay by Jon Blackwood and representative samples of all the artist’s work. It is published by Summerhall and TP Sandinista, Skopje. This can be obtained from Summerhall, whilst a high quality .pdf version is accessible from RGU’s Open Air research repository.

Archipelago: New Work by Three Contemporary Scottish Artists is on show at Summerhall, Edinburgh until March 17^th.

The UK’s biggest exhibition of contemporary video art from the Republic of Macedonia was on display in Aberdeen in November. 

OPA (Obsessive Possessive Aggression), Eternal Body, 2013. Video Installation

‘Imaginarium: Contemporary Video Art from Macedonia’ ran at Gray’s School of Art from  November 4 -18, featuring work from 12 artists who provided a representative cross-section of contemporary artists active in the European country.

Divided into three broad themes, the exhibition features a section on activist video art based on the work of artists who consciously adopt ironical or directly political critiques of contemporary trends in Macedonian society.

The exhibition also focusses on the documentary function of video art, which engages in the process of making or exhibiting art, as well as documenting aspects of contemporary Macedonian life and mutating Macedonian identities.

The final section features work by artists who retreat into the imagination and use video as a means to explore parallel or alternative realities.

Dr. Jon Blackwood, a lecturer of critical and contextual studies at Gray’s School of Art who is the exhibition’s curator, said

“Imaginarium engages with another reality at the other side of the European continent, showcasing contemporary trends in Macedonian society. Macedonian art is not so well known in the UK so this exhibition is important in building bridges between local and international art scenes.”

Jon Blackwood launched his book entitled ‘Critical Art in Contemporary Macedonia’ at the exhibition’s opening night. Published by Mala Galerija in Skopje, the book was funded by a research incentive grant awarded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland in March 2015.

Jon Blackwood adds: “The book is the first in English written about this subject. It draws not only on my interpretation of what is going on in Macedonia, but is based on the first hand accounts of twenty three artists, writers and curators active in the scene.”
Dr Blackwood’s book will be launched at 6.30pm during the exhibition’s opening night.

Imaginarium will open on Friday, November 4 and will run until Friday, November 18 at Gray’s School of Art on Garthdee Road. It will be open to the public between 9.30am and 5pm Monday to Saturday during the period.