Tag Archives: Francis McKee

Wilhelm Sasnal

16 April 2008 at 6.30pm

This month, Spin: Glasgow takes place in the middle of the Gi Festival 2008. With a multitude of exhibitions to choose from, we have selected to view the work of artist Wilhelm Sasnal, one of the higlights of the festival, and one which is sure to create quite a bit of controversy.

As a Polish artist, Wilhelm Sasnal (b.1972, Tarnow, Poland), has chosen to respond to the murder last year of the Polish student Angelika Kluk. In this short film specially commissioned by Gi, Sasnal explores the issue of Polish emigration through recent events in the city. The film involves the writing of a song lyric that will be set to music by a Polish band. The events of this song will then be interpreted in the film.

Sasnal is one of the contemporary art worlds most exciting young artists today. Predominantly a painter, his style is varied and hard to pin down, moving from figuration to abstraction. He was the 2006 winner of the Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe 2006 and his international exhibitions include Frankfurter Kunstverein (2006).

Joining us for discussion wil be Francis McKee, not only the Curator of the exhibition, but Curator of the Gi Festival as a whole, and Director of the CCA in Sauchiehall Street.

Spin Around the City 2005

30 April 2005 at 10.30am

2005 marked the inaugural year of Glasgow International (GI) and Francis McKee did a tremendous job creating a dialogue between the international and the local, and between stars and up-and-coming artists. From site-specific installations and artists showing in Dennistoun flats, to studios and specially curated shows – there was so much going on that it would have taken three tours to cover everything. Spin members and their guests had an exclusive ‘highlights’ tour with free entry to the Glasgow Art Fair in the afternoon.

Spin visited two major group shows Campbell’s Soup curated by Neil Mulholland at the Glasgow School of Art, and This Peaceful War: Works from the Jumex Collection curated by Francis McKee at Tramway, as well as site-specific installations by Smith/Stewart at 64 Osborne Street, and solo shows by Michael Stumpf and Craig Mulholland at Sorcha Dallas, Tobias Buche and Nick Evans at Mary Mary and Will Duke and Elin Jacobsdottir at Market Gallery.