Tag Archives: community

Catherine Opie: To Be Seen

24 September 2026

This month we head to the Royal Scottish Academy for Catherine Opie: To be Seen where we will be joined by Chief Curator, Imogen Gibbon. Curated in collaboration with the artist and touring to Edinburgh from the National Portrait Gallery in London, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen is the first major museum exhibition of Opie’s work to be shown in the UK and her first ever solo exhibition in Scotland.

Catherine Opie makes photographs that question the who, how and why of representation. Her photographs make visible Queer communities, mentors and collaborators, children, surfers, high school footballers, political crowds and Opie herself, through self-portraiture. Opie has said about her work: ‘If you can walk away having a little better understanding about being human, that’s what I care about the most.’

The exhibition features nearly 80 portraits by Opie shown alongside a selection of portraits from Scotland’s national collection. Highlights include her first major work, Being and Having (1991), her portraits of LGBTQ+ friends inspired by court painter Hans Holbein, through to her Baroque-like portraits of artists.

In her photography, Opie questions representations of home, intimacy and family and explores politics, identity and power structures. She creates new narratives, challenging viewers to think about the figures most portrayed in art and those who go unseen.

The dead don’t go until we do

30 April 2026

Join us this month as we make our way to Talbot Rice Gallery for their group show The dead don’t go until we do, where we will be joined by curator James Clegg. 

The dead don’t go until we do brings together four artists who channel the strength of family, friends and communities. It is about the collective power that runs across generations. The title of these collective exhibitions takes its inspiration from a line in Jackie Kay’s poem Darling. 

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas celebrates her ancestral Roma community. Through colourful fabric collages, she takes control of the images made about people, past and present, to overcome centuries of prejudice.  

Amol K Patil follows his late father and grandfathers’ bold writing and performances. He uses his art and poetry to share the struggles of those living in poverty in the City of Mumbai.  

Kang Seung Lee begins with research into historical archives, looking at the way marginalised communities are erased. But he uses the gaps and absences to make space for both the living and dead, in this exhibition linking with historical queer sites across Edinburgh.  

MADEYOULOOK is a collaboration between Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. They explore the landscapes shaped by the frequently displaced Koni people in South Africa. Working from the ancient earthworks left by the Bakoni, they think about alternative relationships to the land. 

Before and After Coal: Images and Voices from Scotland’s Mining Communities

28 March 2024

This month, we are joined by artist Nicky Bird and Robin Baillie, Outreach Coordinator for NGS to explore Before and After Coal: Images and Voices from Scotland’s Mining Communities.

In 1982, American photographer Milton Rogovin came to Scotland to photograph Scottish miners at their pits, in their homes, and during their leisure time. Forty years on from the Miners’ Strike in 1984, Nicky Bird has updated Rogovin’s documentation by meeting with individuals and families connected with the original photographs.

More than an exercise in nostalgia, Before and After Coal is an innovative collaboration between Bird, the National Galleries of Scotland and mining communities. The project was initiated with a series of ‘Show and Tell’ events with people from across Fife, East Ayrshire and the Lothians. Those involved had so much to share about the content of Rogovin’s images as they recognised their fathers and mothers, grandpas and grannies, workmates and friends. Some even saw themselves 40 years on.

Participants posed for portraits in front of blown-up versions of the original images, donning orange miner’s boilersuits and helmets in tribute. They shared their own artefacts and memorabilia and reflected on what they saw. Their stories focus on themes of family, community spirit, work and place, expressing ideas and feelings about what has changed and what has endured. The results of this engagement are at the heart of this exhibition of new work created with Bird in response to Rogovin’s images.