After The Dinner Party, Saltspace

After so many months of empty galleries and cancelled shows it was a relief to step into Saltspace Gallery on the High Street, Glasgow on 27 April and see some real-life physical art.Curated by Saltspace member Lesley McDermott, an art teacher and visual artist currently studying at Glasgow School of Art, the show was a...

Let’s Climb Through This Grief Together: Emma Talbot’s Ghost Calls at Dundee Contemporary Arts

“Let’s climb through this grief together. It’s so much bigger than us. The sorrow of our age, the sorrow of all time… Do you hear ghost calls?” the large silk painting asks, as it stretches across the gallery floor. “A teary lament for human existence, a shout out to the living to take more care...

A Trace Is Not Enough, In Defence Of Tracing

Last summer I bought myself a tracing pad, basically a slim lightbox that I could comfortably sit and trace on. It was about £50 from Hobbycraft and I love it intensely. I am also a little bit ashamed and embarrassed every time I use it.Tracing is controversial in the art world. It’s one of those...

Talking About Writing What She Said

I attended my first Frieze Session while painting. In my new studio I set up my laptop and half-listened to Amy Sillman in conversation with Andrew Durbin; an hour long Zoom interview between the prolific New York painter and the new editor of Frieze art magazine – one of the upper echelon of visual art...

The Women Who Sculpted Scotland’s Public Art (Who I Hadn’t Heard Of Before This Week)

One of my favourite things about public art is discovering the artist (and story) behind pieces you’ve been walking past your entire life. As my interest in sculpture has deepened so too has my curiosity. Here are five Scottish female sculptors whose names I learnt this week. Hannah Frank, b. 1908Hannah Frank was an artist...

The Honesty of the Money Shot: An Interview With Hannah Beresford

Would you open an OnlyFans account for your art practice? Gray’s School of Art master’s student Hannah Beresford’s increasingly sexually explicit paintings have led her to the platform, the first artist we’ve come across using the site in such a way. Here she talks to Ana Hine about the role of the artist in the...

Festival In A Box

Propositions for Alternative Narratives from Photoworks is a stunning selection of contemporary photography packaged in an appealing and thought-provoking way. Although every piece is of high quality, the work of three women artists in particular stand out: Pixy Liao, Ronan Mckenzie, and Alberta Whittle. Taking inspiration from Dayanita Singh’s portable exhibitions, the show comes in...

Clay? Chatting With Ceramicists

Human beings have been working with clay for thousands of years; shaping it into figures and using it to make bowls and cups. After attending Potfest ceramic festival at Scone Palace a few months ago, I’ve been increasingly interested in the medium and decided to reach out to some of the vendors whose work I...

Fight For Your Right To Make Your Art

There is a message that I believe needs to be communicated right now: be brave. Do not accept being silenced. Do not let any voice convince you that your art is “not viable”. Don’t ever scratch out a piece of your art, a song, a section of film or your words because someone made you...

Learning To Listen In A Time Of Unending-ness

For me, 2020 has been primarily characterised by an overwhelming feeling of unending-ness. I recently had a conversation with a friend in which we spoke about the undeniable similarities between the Spanish Flu of the early 20th Century and COVID-19 outbreaks. She also mentioned the prevalence of world-wide race riots that happened around the same...