Kilmorack Gallery - Five Artists

 Until 20 May Kilmorack Gallery is showing the first of three groups of solo exhibitions. Part One presents work by Colin Brown, Annette Edgar, Allan MacDonald, Robert McCaulay and Ann Wegmuller, with smaller works by other artists.

The gallery space, the main nave of an old church, provides both atmosphere and beautiful light.

Colin Brown - selection

Colin Brown's large-scale mixed-media collages, combining contemporary imagery with text, painting and reworked surfaces, dominate the back wall. 
 While I found the larger ones a bit unfocused, the two pictured here have some striking imagery and a cohesion that is eye-catching. 

While the pieces are colourful, they seem more about surface and fun than to be making the sort of political statements traditionally associated with collage artists.

Allan MacDonald - selection

Allan MacDonald has a range of new work - oil paintings of seascapes and views of mountains, often through birch trees. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, his paintings are increasingly sought after, and he has won various prizes. He is permanently represented at Kilmorack gallery. Some of the work is fresh and feels like it captures the spirit of being outside. However, there are works that seem to miss this spirit, perhaps relying too much on random brush strokes and familiar compositions. I preferred the smaller pieces to the larger ones. 

Annette Edgar - Spring Dance

Annette Edgar graduated in 1980 from Glasgow School of Art and has won several prizes including McRoberts Prize 1996; short listed JD Ferguson Travel Award 2000, and the Mary Armour Award PAI 2006.  She is a member of and frequent exhibitor at the RGI; SSA and VAS, as well as contributing to PAI, RSW and RSA. Her vibrant work is heavily influenced by the Fauves. I think Spring Dance is the most successful of the work on show at Kilmorack.

Eoghan Bridge - 'Contact'

There is one small piece by the Edinburgh-born, Leeds-based artist Eoghan Bridge. Much of his sculptural ceramic work is of stylised horses and female figures. This piece, of a female figure balancing a bull, is typically quirky and expressive. 

Andrea Geile

 



Edinburgh based artist Andrea Geile studied Visual Art in Hanover, Germany, and has held residencies in Orkney, Germany, France and Australia. Her sculptures are hand-made from Corten steel, a weatherproof steel that forms a protective layer which stops further corrosion. The pieces are cut out, assembled and then welded together. This piece of three cylinders was well-placed to catch the light, creating interesting shadows. I liked the contrast between the solidity of the material and its relationship with light and space.

Robert McAulay - Deserted Yard

Robert McAulay is permanently represented by Kilmorack. Many of his acrylic on board paintings on created collaged surfaces are of buildings, with tape used to create straight lines.
This piece I preferred to the more stylised and linear buildings because it has a freshness to it. McAulay tends to frame in black, which can overwhelm the pieces.

Ann Wegmuller RSA - Hedge Walk 1

Perthshire-based Ann Wegmuller's oil paintings dominate one wall of the gallery. She writes, 'Colour is very important to me. It is probably the subject of my paintings. The painting itself starts from my feeling for a place and the colour is the mood. It is like music: different sounds are like different colours.' I share this response to colour. Although some of her gouache and oils are in bright colours, this body of work is in a range of greys and whites. It has a sense of space, calm and understatement that I prefer to her more vibrant work. I also felt that her choice of natural wood and white inset frames work particularly well with these more muted colours. 

This is an exhibition worth visiting, as much for the gallery space and the way the pieces are hung as for the work itself. 

Five Artists runs from 18 March to 20 May at the Kilmorack Gallery. http://www.kilmorackgallery.co.uk/exhibitions/

3-D printing workshop

Art students had an opportunity to visit Linkwood campus for a workshop on UHI's 3-D printing facilities. I had done some research, and seen the 3-D printed jewellery work of Nora Fok. Professional technology is well-developed and the technique can be used with a wide range of organic and inorganic materials, from ceramics to cells. The chosen material is extruded according to a computer-generated model, which can be produced through scanning any 3-D object.

UHI 3-D printer in action

At UHI the technology is at the more basic end of the spectrum. The 3-D scanner is only reasonably accurate, and the only materials that can be used are plastics. That said, the main polymer, PLA (polylactic acid) is biodegradable. 

small object being scanned in 3-D scanner

scanned object

The scanner image of the small model shows some of the inaccuracies of the scanner. It is possible to take a series of scans from several angles to iron out these inaccuracies. 

However, for an art student, there is something very interesting about the limitations of the technology in replicating physical objects. 


My own work is about the role of technology, and particularly digital technology, in shaping the reality we inhabit. Although I won't be using 3-D printing to do this at the moment, it is useful to have an understanding of the technology and what it can offer the artist.