28 July 2016
For our July Spin event, we will be meeting at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to discuss the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 with photographer Robin Gillanders.
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is the leading competition to celebrate and promote the very best in contemporary portrait photography from around the world. The selected images explore both traditional and contemporary approaches to the photographic portrait whilst capturing a range of characters, moods and locations. Some photographs present ordinary people in their everyday realities around the world, whilst other show us famous faces, from the actors Peter Capaldi and Benedict Cumberbatch to the artist Yayoi Kusama. The exhibition makes a strong case for the value of large-format portrait photography in the age of the ‘selfie’.
For our July Spin event, we will be meeting at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to discuss the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize with photographer Robin Gillanders.
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is the leading competition to celebrate and promote the very best in contemporary portrait photography from around the world. The selected images explore both traditional and contemporary approaches to the photographic portrait whilst capturing a range of characters, moods and locations. Some photographs present ordinary people in their everyday realities around the world, whilst other show us famous faces, from the actors Peter Capaldi and Benedict Cumberbatch to the artist Yayoi Kusama. The exhibition makes a strong case for the value of large-format portrait photography in the age of the ‘selfie’.
29 July 2015
This month Spin will be meeting at the National Galleries on Wednesday 29 July (please note change of date) to talk about Bailey’s Stardust exhibition which opened last week.
The exhibition includes hundreds of photographs by David Bailey. Coming to prominence in Swinging Sixties London he has made an outstanding contribution to photography with his thought-provoking portraits.
Bailey’s Stardust is the largest exhibition of David Bailey’s portraits to be shown in the UK with over 300 portraits including works that depict Bailey’s time in East Africa, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Delhi and the Naga Hills, as well as icons from the worlds of fashion and the arts, striking portraits of the Rolling Stones, Catherine Bailey and the East End of London.
We will be joined for the discussion by Edinburgh-based photographic artist, writer and critic
25 February 2005 at 6pm
Celebrity, glamour, icons repeated; this is what we think of as Andy Warhol‘s defining work. It made him as famous as his superstellar subjects. But Warhol was prolific for many decades and there is a lot more to him than a few (perhaps overexposed) images. Ranked alongside Picasso and Duchamp as a 20th-century giant, Warhol’s importance is measured by the impact his work has had on a vast range of artists since the 1960s. He deals with the big questions – identity, death, love and pain. Yes, his deadpan persona was the epitome of 1960s ‘cool’; but genuine pathos and humanity run through the works. The humane side of Warhol is becoming more visible now, and this exhibition of self-portraits is a revelation – more stimulating and poignant than you might expect.
One person who knows Warhol’s legacy better than most is Jean Wainwright. An art historian and critic based in Kent, Jean has been given unique access to Warhol’s private audiotapes and his time-capsule boxes – all now housed in the artist’s archive in Pittsburgh.
The CAS members travelled to Pittsburgh recently and it was Jean that arranged for Warhol’s now elderly brother to show them round the places he and Andy frequented as kids. He had never spoken in public before. Jean is a colourful character in her own right, so don’t miss the opportunity to see the show in her company.
29 July 2004 at 6pm
Gavin Turk is Britart’s answer to Andy Warhol. He explores glamour and banality, glitz and abjection, by looking at notions of celebrity and subverting them with endless role-plays. In exactly the same vein he appears as a tramp, and insistently drags the detritus of our world into the gallery. Plastic cups, bin bags and abandoned sleeping bags are transformed into art works of uncertain status – they may be bronze but they look exactly like the unsavoury original . . .
We will be joined in this show of Turk’s new print series by curator and art critic John Calcutt, who has been an entertaining voice guiding us through the Britart/Scottish Art phenomenon over the last few years. As well as lecturing at Glasgow School of Art, writing regular articles and catalogue essays for books such as the survey of Scottish art, Here + Now, he recently curated an excellent exhibition at the CCA.
