27 April 2017
NOW is the first in a series of exhibitions which brings together contemporary art from Scotland with works by leading international artists. Over the next three years, through a series of six exhibitions, NOW will explore and celebrate the role of artists in society and the alternative ways of seeing and understanding the world through their work.
The centerpiece of the first show is Nathan Coley’s The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh, 2004. This iconic work features 286 sculptures which depict every place of worship listed in the 2004 edition of the Edinburgh Yellow Pages directory, offering a snapshot of the city at a particular moment in time through its places of religious meeting.
A key theme running through the exhibition is place and its relationship to time. Peter Doig’s imagined landscape is shown with Jock McFadyen’s real landscape of Carlton Hill recalled from memory. Rivane Neuenschwander’s Colheita Harvest 2013-2014 is a portrait of a London community through an installation of 365 shopping lists collected from supermarkets.
Performance Documents 1980-1987/2013 by Mona Hatoum presents rare archival material documenting the actions and performances she produced during the 1980s. And The Acrobat c.1982 by Peter Horobin, documents performances and interventions he did whilst on a month-long residency in Kassel under the persona of The Acrobat.
Joining us to discuss the works on show will be the curators of the exhibition, Lucy Askew and Julie-Ann Delaney.
24 September 2009 at 6pm
For this month’s Spin event, we will be visiting The Enlightenments at the Dean Gallery presented by the Edinburgh International Festival, to see works by acclaimed international contemporary artists Tacita Dean, Greg Creek, Gabrielle de Vietri, Lee Mingwei, Nathan Coley and Joshua Mosley.
Against the backdrop of Edinburgh and its philosophical history, the artworks that make up The Enlightenments offer contemporary observations on subjects including religion, philosophy, superstition, architecture, literature, natural history, the cosmos, scepticism, stoicism and social manners.
Highlights include a new commission by Glasgow-based, Turner Prize nominee Nathan Coley who has re-presented three gnarled tree trunks that supported the roof of a remote 19th century stone cottage in Perthshire. This new sculptural installation is described by curator Juliana Engberg as ‘like a forest but it’s not. It’s like a natural cathedral but it’s not. It’s like a sanctuary but perhaps it’s more spooky than that. It’s for the viewer to decide.’
Other highlights include Lee Mingwei’s Letter Writing Project which invites viewers to think about communicating with absent friends, family and loved ones by writing all the letters they always meant to. Joshua Mosley’s digital film of animated clay figures, presents a fictional encounter between two of history’s greatest thinkers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal as they journey through a forest and talk about God and nature. In The I Don’t Know Show: Philosophy for Kids, artist Gabrielle de Vietri has recorded interviews with eight to twelve-year-olds in which they answer fundamental philosophical questions about art and life.
Joining us in discussion will be art historian and curator, Bill Hare. Bill is an Honorary Fellow in Scottish art history at the University of Edinburgh and Honorary Curator of the Universitys Fine Art Collection. He has also been a lecturer in modern art history and contemporary critical theory with Edinburgh College of Art for the past 30 years and has recently been apppointed Exhibition Curator of the ECA Cast Collection. He has curated many exhibitions working with major artists incuding Alan Davie, Eduardo Paolozzi and Boyle Family. His most recent exhibitions included Divided Selves-The Scottish Self-Portrait from the 17th Century to the Present (2006) at the Talbot Rice Gallery and Beyond Appearances-Painting and Picturing in Scottish Modern and Contemporary Painting (2007) at the City Art Centre.
26 January 2007 at 6pm
Welcome to a New Year of inspiring Spin events featuring gallery talks, studio visits, Spin-Off trips, art news and invitations to exclusive private views. We would also like to welcome back Suzanne Dunn from maternity leave as our Spin Co-ordinator.
January’s gathering will take place at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art with Off the Wall. As the title suggests, this is an exhibition of floor and ceiling-based works by a host of respected artists including the American hero of minimalism, Sol Le Witt, and some of Scotland’s most valued contemporary artists – Turner Prize nominees Martin Creed, Jim Lambie and Christine Borland, and Nathan Coley.
Off The Wall not only investigates the realm of modern-day sculpture, it also provides an opportunity for the SNGMA to present their more recent acquisitions. We will look the practicalities of site-specific work in collections, for example how realistic is Lambie’s ZOBOP when it must be recreated each time it is installed?
Considering the impact of sculpture or site work in the 20th-century, we will look at the role of the curator and deliberate their contribution as collaborator. We will also explore the issues of purchasing power and what these newly acquired works bring to our nation’s rich collection of visual art.
