Previous Events 2009

December 2009

Doreen Boogert
Sea connections - From Scalpay to Zahara

The Gallery rounds up its second year with an exhibition of fine art by Edinburgh artist Doreen Boogert.

"The core of work this work, mainly monoprints, is based on sketches and photographs taken over the last year when travelling to Scalpay, just off Isle of Skye, and to Llalfranc and Zahara de los Atunes in Spain."

November 2009

Poetry and Postcards
Photographs by Paul Gilling and a selection of Glasgow poetry presented by Strathclyde University English Department



Born 1960 in Southampton, Hampshire, Paul Gilling served from 1977 until 1985 with HM Royal Air Force trying, for the most part unsuccessfully, to keep himself out of trouble. He spent the next 10 years living in Berlin, earning his keep as a waiter, gardener, dancer, painter and photographer. He has lived in Edinburgh for the past 12 years and graduated with a degree in Painting from Edinburgh College of Art in 2004.

Gilling draws his inspiration from the (ostensibly) mundane world around him. His photographs seek to reflect the quirky, amusing and beautiful things that we so often overlook as we trudge through the city.

The images presented here were all taken within five hundred yards of the campus of Strathclyde University, and were made in response to five lines about Glasgow. In their words, and these images, the Glasgow we see every day is transformed into a giant beast, a machine, and a vanished orchard, the playground of fairies and a place of strange encounters.

One of the writers, David Kinloch who lectures in Creative Writing at the university, spoke of Paul's work and read some of his poetry at the launch party.

The English Studies department at Strathclyde University is known for innovative teaching and highly original research. When the department needed website images they steered clear of books and authors. Instead they explored one of their greatest assets - a location at the heart of an endlessly intriguing city. The results by artist Paul Gilling capture the less well known side of Glasgow - fresh and forlorn, relentless and energetic.

October 2009

OPEN WALL
On the 1st of October between 5 and 8pm, the gallery filled with photographers who had brought along one framed print each to take part in an improvised group show and meet and mingle with other photographers. As the walls gradually filled, the exhibition took shape. The final result is a stunning collection of widely different styles and subject matters. The quality of the work submitted surpassed all expectations and the exhibition will stand unedited, as it happened on the night, there for anyone to enjoy until 3rd November 2009. 



Participating artists are:

Derek Mark Chapman
Paul Cunningham
Michael Gallagher
Stuart Gill
Saz Gray
Gitte Griffith
Gordon Hadley
Joyce Henry
Joe Lawrence
Michael Maclean
Tom Manley
Douglas McBride
George McDonald
Karen McKay
Cameron McMurdo
Agnes McNair
Greig Middlemiss
Jean-Marc Millierev Mary Murray
Kirsty Nichol
Katie Noble
Gordon Newlands
Stephen O'Neil
Andy Park
Andrew Rennie
George Ritchie
Ben Rushton
Anita Russo
Margaret Sharkey
Sandy Sharp
Simona Schirru
Graeme Stewart
Siljes Elisabet Thorin
Hugh Turnbull
Sadie Turnbull
Tina Vanderwerf
Kirstie Wilson Love

September 2009

Margareta Svensson
Naima's House



Margareta Svensson (1960) uses photography to consider the relationship between the stillness of the past and the people who form their environment. Photography examines the past, but the photographer can only act in the present. Svensson's deep interest in the contemporary world is recorded with a nearly scientific precision.

She plays with objective registration with a sense of irony. The impulse to document, to bear witness, springs from a curiosity about the interiors of our rooms and our thoughts. Who are we? Can we remember who we were? Is it possible to know something about a person by visiting their house? Or are we overwhelmed by opinions and pre-formed judgements?

The work shown at The Gallery focuses on a house in Hallstahammar, a small town in central Sweden. Central to the exhibition are the rooms in the house, generally unchanged since the beginning of the 20th century. In subtle contrast to the stillness of time, a growing collection of art made by young visitors symbolises the relationships of the main character in the theatre of the house.

The rooms tell the story of the beautiful lady who inhabited them. They express her love and respect towards her family and friends. The feeling of hospitality and friendly interest seems to continue to exist in the house even after her death. In a meeting with the present owners the positive feeling of the house still dominates over any impression of chaos or change.

Svensson studied photography at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She has been based in the Netherlands since 1989. She works primarily with cultural heritage, historical interiors, and objects of art.

www.margaretasvensson.nl

August 2009

Ashley Cowie FSA Scot.
The Rosslyn Templar



A new book by Ashley Cowie - The Rosslyn Templar (Luath Press, 14 August, 2009) - lays out his research into a mysterious painting from 1836 that has recently surfaced at auction in Edinburgh and presents it as the only tangible proof connecting Rosslyn Chapel with the Knights Templar. The book contains detailed photographs of the interior and exterior of the chapel making it appealing to academic enthusiasts and visitors to the chapel alike, especially as public photography has been banned in the building since 2007. These unique photographs are shown in the gallery during August.

Ashley Cowie FSA Scot., 36, was born and raised in Wick in Caithness. After studying photography in Glasgow he returned to Caithness and established a group of seafood companies. In his spare time he explored and photographed the ancient monuments of Caithness and Orkney made a number of significant archaeological discoveries. He was elected into the Scottish Knights Templar in 2004 and into the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2005. He currently lives in Glasgow and lectures on the International Science Festival circuit about ancient symbols, sacred architecture and various historical subjects.

July 2009

George P. McDonald
The Glasgow Bridges



"I bought my first camera when I was 11 years old - a Kodak Duaflex 2 (which I still have) for the princely sum of £3-11-8. It used 620 black and white film as colour was very rare in 1960. Last time I saw one anywhere else was in a museum display at the Peoples Palace on Glasgow Green. Over the years I used a couple of 35mm SLRs, a Praktica and a Nikon, until conversion to digital a few years ago. My conversion to digital has added an extra dimension in that I now have control over the images after I have taken them, and this has lead to many happy hours tweaking images in Photoshop.

Since retiring from teaching two years ago I have been following my interest in photography a little more seriously by completing first an HNC and now an HND at Reid Kerr College in Paisley.

I have always been interested in engineering and architecture, and last summer chose to photograph all the bridges on the Clyde within the Glasgow boundary. All twenty of them, built over a long period of time and not all still operational, show an amazing variety of construction and style. Some of the resulting images are on display and the complete set can be seen in the book which was produced last year as part of my college coursework. The one additional image taken in May this year is an aerial view from a helicopter of the Kingston Bridge."

June 2009

Nick Holmes
Sea Margins



"I have been watching water for very many years. My colour photographs are the selective results of an on-going exploration of the ephemeral interfaces between water, air, light, rock and sand. Discovered details depict a revelation of the infinite modes of fractal relationships. The harmony of the observed sea-scape mirrors ordered chaos of its minute constituents. The random interactions generate natural forms and are the genesis of the image. The streams and shore of the Island of Mull are the sites and sights of acts of creation; nature's and mine."

Influences
Chaos Theory
Dynamics of water
Photography by Eliot Porter and David Muench

Awards
2009 Rocky Mountain National Park, Artist Residency
1987 'Living Scotland' Glenfiddish Award. 'Mull from Past to Present for the Future' - a binary photographic survey

May 2009

Karen Mackay
Wall of Sound


"Technique doesn't come into it. I deal in emotion" - Jimmy Page

Although I didn't say it, this is about as close as I can explain as to what I strive to capture when photographing performers. I find the contrast of being so insular, so completely in that moment whilst reaching out to so many, fascinating.

I want more than a photograph.
I want a memory.

Music is both so personal and yet as the same time universal. I believe that the most interesting photographs are those that we not only see. We feel them. That evoke an emotional response.

Whatever that emotion may be.

KAREN MCKAY
Confusing the singer with the song since 1998.

This exhibition was sponsored by:

April 2009

Tom Manley
'The City, Shot'
 Urban corners collage & photographs


Glasgow based Tom Manley shows a series of urban photographs based on the theme of the 'everyday' - places within the city which are overlooked, yet have their own identity, colours & textures, which give the places a unique atmosphere.

The more surreal digital collages - in contrast to the photographs - are a more personal and emotive response to the built environment where the play of colours, emotions and textures form the inspiration.

The exhibition also includes photographs of 'the overlooked' taken in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  Despite the nation's oil wealth and affluence, Tom focuses on the more impoverished lifestyles - 'the overlooked' - supporting the city, and highlights the imbalance in this futuristic metropolis.

Tom was the winner of G!A Photography Competition 2008  (Glasgow Institute of Architects - Social Landscape category).

"A poignant image expressing the reality of a human life at that moment in time while documenting an urban social space." 
Colin Prior

See more of Tom's work on  www.flickr.com/photos/tom_manley/
e: tfmphotographics@yahoo.co.uk
t: 07729 202402

March 2009

Bill Murray
The Portraits

This exhibition reveals a unique collection of black and white portraits taken by Bill Murray in Glasgow during the 50's and 60's. Hidden in an old Ilford box, recovered from his darkroom behind the kitchen in the West End, two years after his death. We thank the Murray family for kindly sharing their family photo album with us, bringing back memories of having a bath in the kitchen sink and going for a walk in the country in pointy shoes.

The exhibition was sponsored by Jack Brown Eyecare

Eyecare for all the family - 35 Bath Street Glasgow

February 2009

Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Lives That Ever Are


Tommy Ga-Ken Wan is a 23 year old photographer based in Glasgow.

  "...a talent for capturing the essence of moments as they really are at that time; something which my own art - painting and drawing - is unable to do"
- Alasdair Gray, writer and painter

"Such an incredible eye, backed up by a sublime technical mastery."
- Martin Firrell, public artist

"From the first glimpse I ever saw of his work I was immediately seduced by his originality and talent...there is a flame burning inside this guy that most of us can only dream of."
- Eric Hands, photographer

"His photo's have a real sense of timelessness to them. He is truly talented in the real sense of the word."
- Moh Azima, Director

www.tommygakenwan.com

January 2009

Tina Vanderwerf
Dutch photographer and member of Scottish Photographers
Lost & Found

www.tinavanderwerf.eu



Download an interview with the artist