1. THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

I have been Exhibitions Director at The Glasgow School of Art since 2009, curating a year-round public programme that works with contemporary artists, designers and architects from the UK and abroad, as well as interacting with teaching and research activities and developing creative opportunities with staff and students. 

2023

Early Eardley: selected works 1940-1950, Reid Gallery, GSA (10 November – 16 December 2023), co-curated with Professor Susannah Thompson.

This exhibition offered the opportunity to see Eardley’s early works, for which she is lesser known in order to show the ways in which her formative time at The Glasgow School of Art and early experiences from 1940-50 informed the direction and development of her later work.The works for this exhibition are drawn from The Glasgow School of Art Archives & Collections, Lillie Art Gallery, City Art Centre, Gerber Fine Art and Joan Eardley Estate. For exhibition documentation: here.

Co-Roinn | Glean, Museum nan Eilean (Lionacleit), Isle of Benbecula, Scotland (5 October – 9 December 2023)

Violet Banks (1886-1985), MEM Donaldson (1876-1958), Beatrice Garvie (1872-1959), Jenny Gilbertson (1902-1990), Johanna Kissling (1875-1961), Isabell Burton MacKenzie (1872-1958), Margaret Fay Shaw (1903-2004)

Co-roinn | Glean (Sharing | Glean), was an exhibition which was a partnership between The Glasgow School of Art’s Exhibitions Director Jenny Brownrigg (curator) and Vanishing Scotland Archive. The exhibition built on Glean: early 20^th century women filmmakers and photographers in Scotland, which took place at City Art Centre, Edinburgh 2022/23. ‘Co-roinn | Glean’ shared the work of seven women, who recorded life in Highlands and Islands Scotland, between 1905 and 1940. For exhibition documentation: here.

2022

Glean: Early Twentieth century women filmmakers and photographers in Scotland, City Art Centre, Edinburgh (12 Nov 2022-12 March 2023)

A survey exhibition of 14 early 20th century women documentary filmmakers and photographers in Scotland, including Violet Banks (1886-1985), Helen Biggar (1909-1953), Christina Broom (1862-1939), M.E.M. Donaldson (1876-1958), Dr Beatrice Garvie (1872-1959), Jenny Gilbertson (1902-1990), Isobel F Grant (1887–1983), Ruby Grierson (1904-1940), Marion Grierson (1907-1998), Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889-1982), Johanna Kissling (1875-1961), Isabell Burton-MacKenzie (1872-1958), Margaret Fay Shaw (1903-2004) and Margaret Watkins (1884-1969). Curated by Jenny Brownrigg (GSA Exhibitions Director with City Art Centre)

2021

”Are We Reading Closely?’ (II) , Kameelah Janan Rasheed, 5 Florence Street, Glasgow, (11-27 June 2021)

New York-based artist, writer, and educator Kameelah Janan Rasheed is known for work that takes an experimental approach to narrating black experience. Working across a range of media, Rasheed often conceives exhibitions as pedagogical experiences with the power to explore conflicting histories, hidden narratives, archives, memory, and public space. Rasheed’s previous project How To Suffer Politely (And Other Etiquette), was a series of billboard text works that satirise traditional etiquette guides. Created in response to escalating violence against black people across the United States, the work examines the expectations placed on people to police their reactions while maintaining restraint. Rasheed made new work for 5 Florence Street, a School Board of Glasgow building, built in 1894 and formerly known as Adelphi Terrace. This project was supported by Glasgow International.

ambi: Rabiya Choudhry, Raisa Kabir, Fiona Jardine, Hanneline Visnes (7-29 May 2021), CCA, Glasgow

This exhibition takes works from the textiles and fashion holdings at The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Special Collections as its starting point. A series of new commissions by Choudhry, Kabir, Jardine and Visnes tracks the diverse histories of the pieces they have chosen  in order to present new stories and artwork from it. The title of the exhibition, ‘ambi’, is Punjabi for the pattern known in Scotland as paisley pattern. ‘ambi’ means both, allowing for multiple narratives and acknowledging that these works from the archive have diverse origins and appropriations. Co-curated with Sabrina Henry (CCA Glasgow).

2020

Practicing Landscape: Land, Histories and Transformation, Gallery 1, The Lighthouse, Glasgow (25 Jan-17 March 2020)

This exhibition brought together the work of sixteen The Glasgow School of Art researchers, who are part of a research group called ‘Reading Landscape’. Researchers include Nicky Bird, Susan Brind, Jenny Brownrigg, Justin Carter, Alan Currall, Marianne Greated, Michail Mersinis, Christine McBride, Shauna McMullan, Lesley Punton, Frances Robertson, Ross Sinclair, Michael Stumpf, Amanda Thomson, Gina Wall and Hugh Watt. See exhibition documentation See Reading Landscape Research Group website

2019

‘Refuge Garnethill‘, Fleming House, The Glasgow School of Art, 9-13 Sept

This exhibition explored themes of heritage, culture and home through photographs taken by students from St Aloysius Church’s ESOL classes. Coming from a diverse range of countries, the students explored what these themes meant to them in their new home of Glasgow. With the aim of growing language, creativity and self-confidence, the photographs were taken through a series of workshops with photographer Betty Meyer and supported by research into the history and heritage of Garnethill with ESOL tutors. This project is a collaboration between St Aloysius Church and The Glasgow School of Art (devised by Community Engagement Officer Harriet Sims, supported by GSA Exhibitions), funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund. See website ‘Refuge Garnethill‘.

2018

Glasgow International

War of the Corners, Torsten Lauschmann 20 April – 7 May, Reid Gallery

This new solo commission of audio-visual, photographic and sculptural works by Glasgow-based Torsten Lauschmann takes its title from a war of words that broke out in 18^th century Paris when an elitist French opera had to make way for a sudden wave of populist Italian opera. At a time when populist and nationalist vocabularies have again re-surfaced, Lauschmann has created a series of ambitious new works which interact with and reframe referents and resources from high and low culture, drawing together abstraction, humour, politics and art. Lauschmann has had a long interest in automata and automation. At first sight playful, the new works acquire darker resonances, tapping into current anxieties in popular culture created through the unexpected consequences of new technologies.

Pencil to Paper, Susanne Nørregård Nielsen, 20 April – 7 May, Reid Building

Nielsen’s playful interdisciplinary work responds to Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s (1889-1943) text ‘Remarks on Instruction in Ornamental Design’ (1922) to form the foundation for a series of drawings on paper. Sophie Taeuber-Arp is one of the pioneers of abstract art along with Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich. Sophie Taeuber-Arp taught Textile Design at the Trade School Zurich, Department for Applied Art in the first part of her career. In her instructions from 1922,  Sophie Taeuber-Arp shows how to develop textile design, at the same time giving insight into her use of form, rhythm, line and colour.

2017

Dance Number, Louise Hopkins. Mackintosh Building Wall Commission, The Glasgow School of Art

Dance Number is a new commission, situated directly opposite the Reid Building, on the temporary wall that surrounds the historic Mackintosh Building whilst restoration is underway.

I invited Hopkins, as her practice involves working with what already exists in the world; making paintings onto surfaces that already contain information – such as world maps, patterned fabric and pages from books. I remembered the wind blowing the fragments of pages of the library books out of the building in the weeks following the Mackintosh Building fire in May 2014. Hopkins’ work, as part of the temporary perimeter in front of the The Mackintosh Building, responds to its location as part of a building site and busy loading bay. Dance Number forms and performs its own rhythm of hand drawn grid, with red, blue and black geometric shapes. It responds to the lines created by scaffolding, the pedestrian barriers and signs and the movement of people working on, in and around the building. Whilst Dance Number is a separate and unique piece, it has evolved from a chain of reproductions moving from the handmade to the digital.

Louise Hopkins is an artist and part-time lecturer in GSA School of Fine Art. Dance Number is her largest scale work to date.

‘Observing Women at Work: Franki Raffles’, 4 Mar – 27 April 2017, Reid Gallery, GSA

Franki Raffles (1955-94) was a feminist social documentary photographer. This exhibition Observing Women at Work presents a selection of photographs and material by Franki Raffles [1955-94] from three bodies of work, namely ‘Women Workers in the USSR’ (1984/1989)’, ‘To Let You Understand’ (1987-88) and material from  the first ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign (1992), entitled  ‘Prevalence’.  Zero Tolerance was a charity established by Franki Raffles and Evelyn Gillan, together with a small group of women who came together through working on Edinburgh District Council Women’s Committee projects in the late 1980s. Zero Tolerance breaking campaign to raise awareness of the issue of men’s violence against women and children. Raffles’ work will also be contextualised in this exhibition with works of key photographers including Margaret Fay Shaw (1903-2004), Helen Muspratt (1907-1934) and The Hackney Flashers Collective.  This feminist and socialist collective was set up in 1974 and included members Sally Greenhill, Elizabeth Heron, Michael Ann Mullen, Maggie Murray, Christine Roche, Julia Vellacott, Jo Spence and Ann Dekker. The Franki Raffles Archive is an Edinburgh Napier University research project, run by Dr Alistair Scott (Associate Professor, Film & Television, School of Arts and Creative Industries), who this exhibition is produced with. The photographs are held by University of St Andrews Special Collections Division. This exhibition has been curated by Jenny Brownrigg.

See more documentation images of exhibition here.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 52 page book, ‘Observing Women at Work: Franki Raffles’, available from GSA Shop online for £7. Designed by Maeve Redmond, the book contains an introduction by Sarah Munro (Director, Baltic), with essays by Dr Alistair Scott (Edinburgh Napier University) and Jenny Brownrigg (GSA).

2016

‘Hosts and Visitors’, Birthe Jorgensen and Sogol Mabadi, Reid Gallery, GSA, 9 July – 19 August 2016. Showcasing new works by Glasgow-based artists Birthe Jorgensen (b. Copenhagen, Denmark) and Sogol Mabadi (b. Tehran, Iran). ‘Hosts and Visitors’ takes as its inspiration the subject of diaspora and migration.

Serena Korda, ‘Hold Fast, Stand Sure, I Scream A Revolution’, Reid Gallery, GSA, 8 – 27 April 2016. Part of Glasgow International 2016 Supported Programme. This exhibition also was shown at An Tobar, The Isle of Mull, who co-partnered the project (4 June – 30 July 2016)

Korda produced a new sound sculpture for the Reid Gallery that combines her interest in primitive impulses, invented tradition and our skewed relationship to nature.  The new work takes inspiration from the politically radical history of Garnethill (the surrounding area of the Reid Gallery), whilst considering the geographical significance of The Isle of Mull as a portal to the underworld.  Korda will produce a series of sound experiments performed by an army of ‘Agitators’ gathered from the communities of Garnethill and Mull.  In partnership with Comar, Mull. Alongside the installation of porcelain mushroom’s in Korda’s solo show, was an archive room comprising of artefacts that formed the basis of her research into the radicalism of Garnethill and its alternate spiritualities.  These include loans from four archive collections including Glasgow Girls work from GSA Archives and Collections with a bookplate by Jessie M King and part of a teaset by Anne MacBeth; ephemera from Glasgow Women’s Library including posters and badges, from their early inception on Garnethill; loans from CCA, the Third Eye Centre archive, including film footage from guru Sri Chimnoy visits; and images from University of Glasgow’s R.D. Laing archive.

Christina McBride, ‘When Light Becomes Darkness’, Reid Ground Floor Corridor, GSA, 8-30 April 2016. Part of Glasgow International 2016 Across the City Programme.

A solo exhibition of colour and black & white photographic works by McBride with accompanying new bookwork. Bound charts a journey through Patagonia by the artist and Mexican writer Roberto Bravo. McBride is a lecturer at School of Fine Art, GSA.

Rachel Lowther ‘Nothing Compares To the First Time Getting Shot At’, Reid Gallery, 16 Jan-20 March 2016

Rachel Lowther was commissioned to spend 2015 researching WW1  holdings in GSA’s Archives & Collections. This research has inspired a body of new work for the Reid Gallery. Supported by Museums Galleries Scotland.

2015

Grace Ndiritu ‘A Return to Normalcy: Birth of a New Museum’, Reid Gallery, GSA, 1 Oct-12 Dec

A solo show by Grace Ndiritu, including a specially commissioned new film and performance staged at The Glasgow School of Art, in the Mackintosh Lecture Theatre. This show is part of the Turner Prize fringe programme across the city. For ‘Holotropic Breathing For the Masses: An Afro-Futuristic Performance’ (2015) Ndiritu invited 40 participants to come to Glasgow School of Art  to re-activate the Mackintosh Building using the Ancient Egyptian Breath of Life ritual. Using Ancient Egypt as an anchor point in a collective history, Ndiritu acted as a high priestess, leading the participants through this deep process so that they could experience a type of re-birthing experience to activate memories of the Mackintosh Building pre-fire and to bring the building energetically back to life. The film and set were subsequently part of the exhibition ‘A Return to Normalcy: Birth of a New Museum’.

Catherine Street ‘Muscle Theory’, 18-30 April 2015, Reid Gallery

This new work is somewhere between an exhibition and a slowly unfolding piece of performance. Ideas, sounds and images gradually reveal their connections and antagonisms. Precisely spoken voice recordings, softly flickering projections and live performances are configured to create an atmosphere of intense reverie that is occasionally interrupted by moments of vulnerability, salaciousness, confusion or cynicism. Catherine Street is an artist based in Edinburgh.

Kellenberger–White, 13 March – 12 April 2015

This exhibition with London-based design studio Kellenberger–White showcased the identity they developed  for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art in 2014. Kellenberger-White have been nominated by Design Museum in Graphics Section for Design of the Year 2015 for this design identity. Commissioned by Sarah McCrory, Director of GI, to design the identity for the Festival’s 2014 edition, they created a highly characterful typeface that captures the quickness and scale of large hand-painted lettering used on warehouses, docks and ships throughout Glasgow’s industrial waterfront. The hand-painted digitised font maximised inexpensive materials.

2014

Alasdair Gray Season: Spheres of Influence II, 22 Nov 2014 – 25 Jan 2015, Reid Gallery.

Aubrey Beardsley, Oliver Braid, Eric Gill, Alasdair Gray, Peter Howson, Dorothy Iannone, David Kindersley and Lida Lopes Cardozo, Stuart Murray, My Bookcase, Denis Tegetmeier, Hanna Tuulikki

This exhibition provides an alternative reading of Alasdair Gray’s visual work, through the prism of others’ works, both historical and contemporary. The exhibition will include a series of Gray’s work from Alasdair Gray’s personal archive. The Alasdair Gray Season celebrates Gray at eighty years old. This exhibition is part of a season focusing on Alasdair Gray’s visual work, with exhibitions and events across venues including The Glasgow School of Art, GOMA, Kelvingrove Museum and Glasgow Print Studio.  ‘Spheres of Influence I’ is at Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow.

Cabbages in an Orchard; The formers and forms of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Graham Fagen , 28 June – 29 August 2014 Reid Gallery. Graham Fagen, has been invited  to research Charles Rennie Mackintosh through the GSA Archives & Collections Centre, and to create a solo exhibition of new work to be featured as part of GENERATION. Accompanying full colour publication, designed by Owned and Operated, with introduction by me and essays by Graham Fagen and Johnny Rodger.

‘Caesura’, Heaven Baek (South Korea), Briggs & Cole (UK), Raydale Dower (UK) Three commissions to launch the new Reid Gallery at The Glasgow School of Art. The Reid Building has been designed by Steven Holl Architects in conjunction with JM Architects. 22 March – 4 May 2014.  A ‘caesura’ denotes a brief, silent pause in poetry or music, during which metrical time is not counted. As the new Reid Building welcomes people and springs into life, occupied by its community, visited by the public, this exhibition is intended to act as a pause in time, the beginning of a new chapter for the art school.

‘This Song Belongs to Those who Sing It’, [exhibition, public artwork] Michael Stumpf A new commission for external and internal works at The Glasgow School of Art. This project is part of the Supported Programme, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. 4 April – 4 May 2014.

2013

Convocation, Colm Cille’s Spiral [Residency, exhibition and event] Emma Balkind, Susan Brind, Caroline Dear, Hardeep Pandhal, Edwin Pickstone, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Francis McKee, Michail Mersinis, Jessica Ramm, Johnny Rodger, Augustus Veinoglou

 In August 2013 a group of seventeen scholars, artists and organisers made their way to Raasay, a small island off Skye, for a short residency, responding to the legacy of 6th Century Irish monk Colm Cille. A month later the group re-gathered in Glasgow, to give their creative responses over an event at CCA, and in an exhibition at the Mackintosh Museum. ‘Convocation’ was part of the Derry~ Londonderry City of Culture project ‘Colm Cille’s Spiral’. It was one of 6 projects across UK and EIRE. Colm Cille’s Spiral was a Difference Exchange project in partnership with The Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, at Kings College London. The Scottish ‘knot’ was led by Jenny Brownrigg (The Glasgow School of Art) in partnership with ATLAS Arts, CCA and University of Glasgow. My Blog on this project.

A Conspiracy of Detail [exhibition, Mackintosh Museum]  Pio Abad, Jonathan Baldock,  Josh Blackwell, Jim Lambie, Hew Locke, Alex Pollard, Eva Rothschild, Karin Ruggaber, Renee So This group exhibition looks at the ideas contemporary practice has around adornment, exploring cultural, social and material aspects. It looks at the status that detail and embellishment has now in contemporary practice. The highly detailed Mackintosh Museum welcomes this examination also, with the building itself influenced by the Arts & Crafts Movement that Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his peer group were part of.

Anticipating the Future [exhibition, Mackintosh Museum] Mariusz Tarkawian. This was Tarkawian’s first solo exhibition in UK. The show included ‘Anticipation of Art’, his ongoing series of over 600 drawings which anticipate what kind of work that well known contemporary artists will be making in the future.

2012

 Three Points of Contact Residency (CO-CURATED WITH JUDIT BODOR AND BLAIR TODD) [Artist Residency, exhibition] A new roving residency and evolving network that creates the opportunity for curators to work together, bringing international artists into contact with UK artists at contrasting locations.The residency set up as an experimental space in each participating gallery, where the artists researched and developed ideas through collaborative experiments, dialogue and public interaction. In the pilot year, the 3 month residency started in York (13–23 Nov 2012, New School House Gallery), moved to Glasgow (3–14 December 2012, Mackintosh Museum) and finished in Penzance (15–26 January 2013, Exchange Gallery). Supported by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Artists in residence in Glasgow: Hrafnhildur Halldórsdóttir (Gla), Michelle Hannah (Gla), Stuart Gurden (Gla),  Rachel MacLean (Gla), von Calhau! (Po), TAap (Cornwall), Mark Vernon (Gla), Megan Wellington (York). 

‘The Immortals’, Folkert de Jong, (NL), Mackintosh Museum, GSA. Supported by Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and the Mondriaan Fund. De Jong made a new installation of figurative sculptures for the Mackintosh Museum, inspired by the figures of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh. The exhibition title ‘The Immortals’ refers to the name they gave to their peer group that included Herbert McNair and Margaret’s sister Frances.

‘The New Easterhouse Mosaic’, Alex Frost (UK), [public art work] co-commissioned by Glasgow East Arts Company (Platform) and The Glasgow School of Art. Permanent public artwork in Easterhouse, Glasgow. Supported programme, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. Inspired by the iconic world famous Easterhouse Mosaic that was created in the 1980s by the local community and located in Lochend, The New Easterhouse Mosaic was commissioned to welcome visitors to Platform and The Bridge.

‘To Have A Voice’, Hernan Bas (USA), Kaye Donachie (UK), Moyna Flannigan (UK), Chantal Joffe (UK), Bruno Pacheco (PT), Gideon Rubin (IL) and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (UK) Exhibition exploring contemporary figurative painting. Mackintosh Museum, GSA.

2011

‘The Erratics’, Lotte Glob (UK), with work by Nick Evans and performance by Ruth Barker. An erratic rock is a large boulder which has been transported by a glacier, coming to rest on rock of a different nature. Lotte Glob (b.1944) is a Danish ceramicist, living in the north of Scotland. We moved Glob’s work from its outdoor location in her ‘sculpture croft’ in Sutherland, to the Mackintosh Museum, where it came to rest on works made by Glasgow artist Nick Evans. A performance by Glasgow artist Ruth Barker drew the exhibition to a conclusion.

‘Live Your Questions Now’, Sam Ainsley (UK), Helena Almeida (PT), Alasdair Gray (UK), Joan Jonas (USA), Ana Jotta (PT), Michael Kidner (UK), Běla Kolářová (CZ) and Lygia Pape (BR), Mackintosh Museum, GSA. ‘Live Your Questions Now’ was a survey exhibition of Scottish, UK and international contemporary artists over 60 years old which ran concurrent with the British Art Show in Glasgow. The exhibition title was inspired by a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Letters to a young poet’ (1934): “Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” With the focus of survey shows predominantly on emergent artists, the show looked at contemporary practices sustained across decades of enquiry.

‘Living Today: with information from George Orwell Archive’, Matei Bejenaru (RO), Francis Cape (USA), Ross Birrell and David Harding (UK), Jens Haaning (DK), Ângela Ferreira (PT), Eva Merz (DK). Artists’whose work explores aspects of the society they live in – politics, culture, economy, living conditions and social structures. Including digital prints of George Orwell’s original typescript of ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’. Mackintosh Museum, GSA.

2010

‘Inhale, Exhale’, Alice Channer (UK), as part of Glasgow International. Mackintosh Museum, GSA

‘Restore and Regain’, Tommy Grace (UK), Ged Quinn (UK), Tony Swain. Mackintosh Museum, GSA. This exhibition looked at the ways in which artists utilise archaic landscape, the monument, the ruin, the fortress and other architectural references within their work. The show title is from Book 1, John Milton, ‘Paradise Lost’.

‘Magic towards your face’, Henry Coombes (UK). Mackintosh Museum, GSA. A solo exhibition and new work made in the Mackintosh Museum. The film provides a fictional account of an exhibition within  this real show in the Mackintosh Museum.

Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art 

2. DUNCAN OF JORDANSTONE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, DUNDEE, SCOTLAND

I was curator at Exhibitions Dept, DJCAD, from 2002-2009. Exhibitions Department worked with DJCAD staff and students as well as invited local, national and international practitioners. Gallery spaces included Cooper Gallery, Lower Foyer Gallery [student projects], Matthew Gallery and Lamb Gallery, for projects linking to University Depts and Museums & Archives  [University of Dundee]. As well as the gallery programme it was important to develop other kinds of projects to involve the art school community, with festivals, residencies and an audio label called ‘discparc’.

2009

‘Nine Trades of Dundee’  www.ninetrades.com  devised and gained funding for year-long project engaging those who would not normally participate in the arts by bringing trade and art together. ‘Nine Trades of Dundee’ commissioned nine artists to work with trades people in their work places across the city to collaborate on new work. Each selected artist shared the same trade skills as the group they work with.

 ‘Counter Logic’ – Maciej Kurak, Olaf Brzeski, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Tomasz Kozak, Anna Molska, and Janek Simon (All Poland) with Anthony Schrag (UK). Co-curated with Stach Szablowski of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw as part of POLSKA! YEAR. Cooper Gallery, DJCAD.

‘Back of the Head: Some Alternative Approaches to Portraiture’  (CO-CURATED WITH LAURA SIMPSON) Nina Lola Bachhuber (USA), Wojciech Bakowski (PL), Ruth Claxton (UK), Peter Haining (UK), Siniša Labrovic (HR), Magnus Larsson, Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan (UK)

2008

‘Straylight Cavern’, Jonathan Baldock, Michael Bell-Smith, Rick Buckley, Aisling Hedgecock, Ian Munroe, Takeshi Murata, Milika Muritu, Angelo Plessas, Richard Priestley, Rafael Rozendaal,  Cooper Gallery, DJCAD. In a unique collaboration with Cell Project Space, London, the Cooper Gallery was transformed into a cavern, with the artists’ work becoming part of a cave therefore a cave dweller in the gallery space. The title of the show was based on ‘the Villa Straylight’, a dwelling in William Gibson’s novel ‘Neuromancer’ (1984). Cell Project Space is run by artists Milika Muritu & Richard Priestley, who designed and built the installation and curated the ‘cave’ .

2007

‘The Autonomy of the Object’, Torsten Laushmann (UK), Tim Knowles (UK), Cooper Gallery, DJCAD. Bringing together two artists’ work that explores the self-possession of ready-made objects from nature to the manmade.

‘I Gave You Life’, Nathalie Djurberg (SE), Erica Eyres (Canada), Eri Itoi (JP), Kirsty Whiten (UK), Cooper Gallery, DJCAD. I Gave You Life’ brought together four women artists who explored society’s inhibitions or the lack of them, through the series of characters they create. In all works this is manifested through uncompromising studies of awkward characters caught up in dark narratives.

‘Reading, Riding and other Recent Works’, Rainer Ganahl (USA), Cooper Gallery, DJCAD. This was Rainer Ganahl’s first solo show in UK. It included works from his ‘Bicycle works’ series where he cycled the wrong way up streets across the world; and works from his ‘Reading Lenin’ series.

‘Your Words in My Mouth’, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Scotland A 2-day festival, exhibition and live events at this historic artist residency. Co-curated with DCA, Hospitalfield, GeneratorProjects and Bad Bad Boys Club. The house and grounds became the site for performance, gigs and installations. DJCAD Exhibitions Dept worked with Jon Adams, Catherine Street, Claire Todd and Sir Leonard Hatred Devotional Ensemble.

2006

‘Re-animating the City’, Will Duke (UK), Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor (Ro / Switzerland), Cooper Gallery. Explored ways of re-animating open space in the city.

2005

‘Dance of the Seven Veils’, Cooper Gallery, DJCAD. Pablo Bronstein, Lali Chetwynd, Adam Chodzko, Olivia Plender. Four artists inspired by the films of Ken Russell were invited to exhibit. The exhibition was accompanied by photo-journalist Michael Peto’s images of the Ken Russell film shoot for ‘The Dance on the Seven Veils’, from Michael Peto Photographic Collection at the University of Dundee Archives.

‘Collage party’, Paul Butler (Canada), 4 day event, Cooper Gallery, DJCAD

‘Another other’, Jason Botkin / Paul Butler / DearRainDrop (US) / Mark Delong / Dean Drever / Daniel Dueck / Erica Eyres / Simon Hughes / Jeff Ladouceur / Peter Lejewski / Patrick Lundeen / Keith Jones / Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline / Sylvia Matas / Jason McLean / Bonnie Marin / Kim Ouellette / Brad Phillips / Mélanie Rocan / slomotion / Adrian Williams, (all Canada), Cooper Gallery, DJCAD

‘Function Form Follows’,  Emmanuelle Lainé (Fr), Mixko (UK/Japan), Kate Owens & Tommy Grace (UK), Cooper Gallery, DJCAD

‘Jerusalem Syndrome’, Nathan Coley, (UK) (commission for artist to travel to Jerusalem and make new film work), Cooper Gallery, DJCAD

2004

‘Life of A Commercial Gallery’, IBID Projects (UK/Lithuania) Janis Avotins, Carey Young,  Christopher Orr,  Milena Dragicevic,  Arturas Raila,  Vicky Wright, Anj Smith,  Jaan Toomik,  Swetlana Heger. 

Often art college students can have high expectations that future success is measured on being ‘discovered’ and represented by a commercial gallery. Exhibitions Department  invited a commercial gallery IBID Projects to ‘set up shop’ in our gallery space and begin to unravel the realities of the life of a commercial gallery.  IBID Projects, had a gallery in London and a parallel gallery in Vilnius, Lithuania.

discparc [label, festival, exhibition]

‘discparc’ was created to disseminate original recordings by dedicated audio artists at any stage of their career. Presenting releases of schizophonic art, Electro-acoustic, Noise, Experimental Music and Sound Art on all audio distribution forms including vinyl, CD, cassette and on-line. ‘discparc’ was a resource and support for emerging to established audio artists. We looked for artists who present unique and challenging work and who will actively persevere with us in the development and production of the project as they envision it. Ideas, materials, and an actual hand in packaging and production were all strongly encouraged. Developed in collaboration with Donna Holford-Lovell.

2003

‘A Sketch of the Universe’, Sally Osborn (UK) [Residency and exhibition, researching Sir D’Arcy Thompson Archives, University of Dundee]  This residency was a response to University of Dundee’s zoology and herbarium collections, which were started by Sir D’Arcy Thompson in 1885.

‘Sonology of a Mute Spectacle’, Mark Vernon (UK)  [Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee] Mark worked with the zoology collection at University of Dundee, to create a sonic installation for display cases, filled with objects from the collection, including taxidermy that did not make the grade.

‘An American Conversation’, Alex Frost (UK) and Karla Black (UK) [exhibition]  Cooper Gallery, DJCAD, Dundee, UK. Karla Black and Alex Frost exhibited together for the first time. Their exhibition is a conversation around suggestion and game-play.The work shown came out of a relationship between sculpture and performance. It referenced certain elements of American cultural history: the teaching practices of Black Mountain College; Max Factor; Happenings; Popular Psychology.The artists made all work in situ in the Cooper Gallery over a ten day period in the run up to the opening.

2002

‘EF103 603’, Jordan Baseman (UK) [exhibition] Cooper Gallery, DJCAD , University of Dundee. This solo exhibition comprised of three video works: ‘Luv is Gonna Get You Someday’ (2001/2002), a documentary focusing on the philosophies of disfigured and middle-aged pop wannabe Dave; ‘Thriller’ (2002), a role play consisting of excerpts from interviews with Michael Jackson; and ‘July Twelfth 1984’ (2001), a real-life recorded commentary of the last moments of inmate EF103 603.

3. OTHER CURATORIAL PROJECTS

2010

Timespan, Helmsdale, Sutherland, Scotland: curatorial research report (with Claudia Zeiske) for Timespan’s visual arts programme 2011-13, including curating 3 month residency with Jo Roberts (UK), looking at advocacy of contemporary art. For Field Studies, Jo worked with four communities across Sutherland (Kinlochbervie, Kinbrace, Skerray and Helmsdale. She also worked closely with all members of the Timespan to explore the ‘creative geology’ of the organisation.

2008

‘Fifeman‘, [exhibition] Alan Grieve, Peter Haining, Jason Nelson, Kevin Reid, Cupar Arts Festival, Fife. An unconventional exploration of the psyche of ‘Fifeman’ by four male artists all hailing from towns in Fife.

2006

Co-curator of 2^nd International Biennial of Young Artists / Art is Always Somewhere Else, Bucharest, Romania, organised by META Cultural Foundation and Goethe Institute Bucharest

Co-curated with Irina Grabovan, curator, Aorta Gallery (Moldova); Branko Franceschi, Executive Director, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (HR); Oana Tanase, curator and journalist (RO); Simona Nastac, (Romanian Cultural Institute, London)

My projects: Stuart Murray (UK) hosted by Bucharest artist community; Anca Benera (Ro) with Miranda Blennerhassett (UK) and Louisa Preston (UK); Tobias Sternberg (UK/ Sweden) with ‘add’ (Ro); Marcus Coates (UK), Will Duke (UK) with Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor (Ro / Switzerland); Olivia Plender (UK) with Ciprian Muresan (Ro)