30 July 2026
Join us this month for Wendy McMurdo: The Digital Mirror at the Portrait Gallery where we will be joined by curator Ben Harman.
Working at the forefront of developments in digital photography, Wendy McMurdo: The Digital Mirror, charts 20 years of ground-breaking work by this pioneering photographer. McMurdo has blazed a trail in the experimental use of computers and digital tools in photography from the early days of computer-based learning in schools to the growth of the internet and networked gaming.
Wendy McMurdo: The Digital Mirror comes at a time when the digital landscape is changing faster than ever before, with technology offering limitless possibilities and scope for imaginative learning. With children spending more and more time online, the exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the impact of technology on learning and play in childhood.
27 July 2023
For this month’s Spin event we will be heading to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to discuss the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, with curator Louise Pearson.
Capturing and sharing emotional, dramatic, or everyday moments in life is the magic of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. Featuring celebrated professionals and enthusiastic amateur photographers, the prize celebrates the very best in contemporary photography, drawing on over 4,000 entries from 62 countries.
The final selection showcases 51 portraits from 36 artists, which includes several famous faces, including footballer and activist Marcus Rashford and Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard. The winner of this year’s Prize is Clémentine Schneidermann for the series Laundry Day. The socially distanced portraits of the series were taken during times of quarantine, self-isolation, and national lockdowns. In the words of the artist, they ‘document micro events which deal with the passage of time through the small moments of our daily lives’
24 February 2011 at 6pm
This month we will be visiting the Edinburgh Printmakers to see the work of British artist John Goto who has made a new series of apparently abstract images entitled Mosaic prompted by the invasion of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Defence Force.
Taking the contentious events of the 2008-2009 Israel/Palestine conflict as his main focus, Goto attempts to probe what appears to be deliberate media confusion and deception and get through to a glimpse of some of the individual deaths. Goto has worked with images made by eye-witnesses using mobile phones and a software program called Mosaic – which is used to censor images by a technique of pixelated obscuring. These pictorial abstractions have been described as being reminiscent of the colour systems paintings made by artists Johannes Itten, Paul Klee and Max Bill.
For this exhibition Goto has worked with the Edinburgh Printmakers on the research and development of a newly commissioned work that explores the convergence of traditional printmaking techniques with digital image manipulation and printing.
We are also delighted to announce that artist Calum Colvin will be joining us to discuss Goto’s work. Calum Colvin is one of Scotland’s leading artists with works held in major public collections including the National Galleries of Scotland. His work explores the boundaries of painting, photography, sculpture and electronic imaging.
