Seven of the most promising contemporary artists based in Scotland open a new exhibition this week, but with a difference – they only met through membership of an elite, secretive club.
The spark for 500 Miles North, opening this Friday at the University of Abertay Dundee, was the launch of the Courvoisier Future 500 list, an exclusive network of exceptionally talented individuals from the worlds of art, business, culture and entertainment.
Clare Brennan, artist and Assistant Cultural Projects Officer at Abertay University, brought together all the Scotland-based artists on the list and invited them to create new artworks for a special show at the university’s Hannah Maclure Centre.
Clare said: “This is a hugely exciting project, bringing together artists from completely different disciplines and pushing them beyond their comfort zone.
“Instead of just collecting together existing art, the exhibition also challenged them to make completely new works in response to all the other artists in the show. We’re bringing the idea of the network into the art itself – creating new opportunities by working together.”
The art on show covers a huge range of practices, from painting and sculpture, to installations and intricate glass-blowing. One of the highlights of the exhibition is ‘Highly Sprung’ by Julia Douglas, a dress made from 12,000 springs taken from clothes pegs.
Clare added: “This exhibition has taken a year of hard work and soul-searching to bring together. My own work as a painter has definitely taken a strong new direction from working with these other six hugely talented individuals.
“We think the public will enjoy this exhibition enormously. There is really something for everyone here, from dramatic contemporary painting on a massive scale, to incredibly intricate glass work. This is a very exciting exhibition of bold new contemporary art for Dundee, and for Scotland.”
Leading Scottish painter Ronnie Forbes will formally launch the exhibition at 7pm on Friday 23 July with a drinks reception. It will then be open Monday to Friday, 9.30am-4.30pm, until 27 August.
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A print quality image of the dress made of 12,000 springs is available on request, as well as images of work from all the artists.
For all media enquiries, please contact Chris Wilson (Communications Officer) – T: 01382 308935 M: 07837 250284 E: chris.wilson@abertay.ac.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Abertay University’s Hannah Maclure Centre is a public space, combining a café, gallery and cinema space. It is situated on the top floor of the Abertay Student Centre on Bell Street.
As well as featuring important solo and group art shows, the Hannah Maclure Centre also promotes local artists and makers with regular events and pop-up shops. More information is available at the Hannah Maclure Centre website.
Ronnie Forbes is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s most important figurative painters, frequently mentioned alongside leading figures like Ken Currie and Peter Howson.
He has exhibited internationally, has works held in the collection of the Royal Scottish Academy, and continues to have a strong influence on contemporary art in Dundee and Scotland. Ronnie also advised on the formation of the Hannah Maclure Centre at Abertay University.
THE ARTISTS
Clare Brennan seeks to create performance within portraiture, using realism to portray the unreal. Clare finds the notion of creating fantastical narratives and portraying unattainable beauty within a single image an exhilarating challenge.
Julia Douglas ponders the relationship people have with their homes and the objects they put in them to make them their own. She aims to tell a story about the inhabitant’s life through her work by playfully transforming these items into mixed media sculptures and prints.
Margaret Livingstone’s art is often large-scale, complex and making use of multi-layered canvases, including handmade models and reflecting varying depths of reality. Her textured pieces are concerned with the interactions between people’s fluid personas and their encountered environments, both perceived and actual.
Roddy Mathieson’s ideas work their way up through a chain of processes – from monoprints to silkscreens, maquettes and bronze casts. His work is influenced by our relationship with the natural world, and how our manipulation of this ‘resource’ defines us.
Louisa Preston refers to and explores architectural form and aesthetics, manipulating space, material and scale, to create installations which resonate with both physical and psychological spaces. Current work takes the form of small-scale architectural models, sculptural objects, photographs and drawings, which are often combined to form a larger scale installation.
Elin Isaksson takes her inspiration from the play in nature of light, texture and movement. She uses one or mixes techniques which she believes will suit a particular expression that she is striving to achieve. In her architectural glass she enjoy the ways she can ’bring it to life’, give it movement, texture and manipulating the material in different ways such as kiln cast and direct cast.
Janey Muir’s work focuses on commodities becoming objects of desire, things that are admired from a distance. Instead of using an object for the function it is intended – blowing a whistle, playing an instrument, smashing a fire alarm – she seeks to remove usability and give ordinary objects a high art status.