The Sutton Gallery

Morag Donkin Exhibition Opening Today 4pm

6/23/2018

We are delighted that our Morag Donkin exhibition opens this evening for a preview 4-6pm.

Morag Donkin

23 June to 4 August 2018
Open Tuesday - Saturday 11 am - 5pm

Morag Donkin is an artist living and working in Edinburgh. She studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 2013. She was awarded the Keith Prize by the Royal Scottish Academy in 2011 and the Fleming-Wyfold Award in 2012.

‘This exhibition brings together a collection of paintings that explore the woodland landscapes of Scotland. All trees have character and an ethereal beauty. Their seasonality and growth inspire wonder and we have a primal appreciation for their life, which surely is only deepened when we consider how their life supports our own.

I have a deep respect for trees. I am eternally compelled to paint them. As a subject they have so much to give, and their presence creates such atmospheric spaces. I walk the woodlands every day and I always find inspiring imagery. I look to explore that connection with my painting, and feed the aspects of the composition that drew my initial attention.

These paintings may feel familiar to anyone who has taken a woodland walk in Scotland. The forest can be a very personal experience and also of great comfort. I believe this exhibition reflects a positive time in my life and a growing gratitude for the natural world.

The materials I use in my painting are also important to my work. I do like to stay true to the forms and colours of the woodland, but I leave room for the paint to tell its own story and allow loose brushwork to mirror the organic nature of these spaces. Colour is a powerful medium and it can change the feel of everything in a piece.

I admire the work of Caspar David Friedrich, the 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter. His true admiration for the world is palpable in his vast archive of work. I am also influenced by Peter Doig and his fluid, fearless use of paint. Seeing what can be achieved in paint compels me to continue to explore the medium.

I continue to collect a visual database of the trees that I meet. For me, there is no end to their intrigue and unwavering authority. If landscape painting is unfashionable, I will continue to be unfashionable. I sincerely love the woodlands of Scotland.’

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Gardner Muirhead 'Leitmotif'

5/12/2015

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Our Gardner Muirhead: Leitmotif exhibition opened on Saturday 2nd May and there was a great turnout for the unveiling of this exciting new body of mixed media artworks by the Glasgow-based artist.

“Once I have a collection of materials which I think hint at a theme, I allow the images to make their own connections and dialogues. For around a week, the components are constantly in flux – rearranged, photographed, shifted - until they find their place together. It is by this process that they are organized into a composition. The end results are usually a surprise to me.” – Gardner Muirhead

Gardner Muirhead was born in West Lothian in 1962. He graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a degree in tapestry design in 1984. He has a postgraduate degree from Jordanhill College of Education and has been a full time teacher of Art and Design in Glasgow since 1987. He has exhibited textiles, painting and printmaking in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife.

Since 2005, Muirhead has been incorporating Japanese woodblock printing into his work. For this new exhibition, he has experimented with making mixed media works combining woodblock printing, lino printing, photography and found imagery.

Among his eclectic aesthetic influences are Bauhaus and modernist design, DADA, Op-Art, neo-plasticism, Pop Art and the American abstract painter Burgoyne Diller. Muirhead is also interested in the playful, colourful and modular designs of Memphis Design Group, the Italian design company led by Ettore Sottsass.

These influences translate in his work to a tightly considered approach to colour, surface, balance and space, which reflects his interest in modernism, typography, German cinema and Cold War aesthetics. Much of the found imagery in Muirhead’s work is from flea-markets, particularly in Berlin and it is informed by a collector-curator’s passion for print culture, especially of the mid 20th Century: magazines, cinema posters, street signage, redundant text books, window displays and advertisements; all these and more are reflected in Muirhead’s assemblages and collages.

One of the most compelling aspects of Muirhead’s art practice is the way in which these concerns are combined with masterly printing technique, where found material is juxtaposed with an exacting approach to the craft and process of moku hanga or Japanese woodblock. This, combined with stencilled metal, spraypaint, lacquer and other materials give his mixed media collages an incredible variety of surface texture.

To see the exhibition online, click here.

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Julia McNairn White: Scottish Seascapes 2015

3/20/2015

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It is now only a week to go before the opening night of our new Julia McNairn White exhibition on 27th March, Seascapes. We are thrilled to be showing Julia again after the enormous success of last year’s exhibition which comprised a series of sensitive and affectionate depictions of The Meadows in Edinburgh. The new work instead focuses on the coastline in and around North Berwick, East Lothian.

Julia’s new work is breathtaking and we are sure it will go down a storm; in fact two pieces out of the suite of fifteen oil paintings and pastels have already sold. The works are varied in their depictions of the rugged shoreline and the looming Bass Rock, to the peaceful and seemingly deserted beaches and harbour of North Berwick.

Ever present is Julia’s sensitive handling of light and shadow, from the open expanse of sea and sky, to the complex shadows cast over rocky formations and the light reflected in pools of water on a beach.

We have no doubt the new show is going to look great. Make sure you come along to see it: the exhibition runs from Saturday 28th March until Saturday 25th April 2015, Tuesday to Saturday, 11am - 5pm. To see the full exhibition and price list click here.

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Introducing Thomas Cameron

3/7/2015

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We are delighted to introduce Glasgow-based Thomas Cameron as a new gallery artist, a selection of whose work we are showing in March 2015 alongside Jenny Mason, Leo du Feu, Aileen Grant, Roar Kjærnstad and Ruth Mae.

Cameron graduated in 2014 from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and has already begun making a name for himself as one of the most exciting young painting talents. He has won numerous awards including the John Milne Purvis Prize, the Radiology Art Award and the Pittenween Arts Festival Bursary Award. Often dealing with urban subjects, he displays an incredible poetic sensitivity to light and shadow. His work could be seen as being influenced in part by painters such as Edward Hopper and Rackstraw Downes.

Exhibitions include:

2014
Wall Projects Christmas Exhibition, Montrose
Macmillan Annual Art Show, Caledonia Galleries, Glasgow
Scottish Home Show with Holburn Gallery, Aberdeen
Artsyland 8: New Graduates, Wall Projects, Montrose
Pittenweem Arts Festival, Fife
Best of Degree Show, Six Foot Gallery, Glasgow
Graduate Exhibition, Abernyte Art Gallery
Degree Show, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee
Spring Exhibition, The Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh
Teenage Cancer Trust Exhibition, Skypark, Glasgow

2013
Members Show, Generator Projects, Dundee,
Passing Place, The Old Ambulance Depot, Edinburgh,
Sommerausstellung, Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe
Erasmus Lichthof, Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe
The Undiscovered Landscape, Matthew Building, DJCAD, Dundee

2012
Lomond School Foyer (as part of residency), Helensburgh
Meeting Point , The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
Something Palatable, Roseangle Gallery, Dundee

2011
Self Portrait Exhibition, Bradshaw Art Space,DJCAD, Dundee
The Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

2010
Helensburgh Art Club Annual Exhibition

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Sokolov Documentary Screening Co-Hosted by Dashkova Centre

2/12/2015

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Last night, The Sutton Gallery in partnership with The Dashkova Centre, Univeristy of Edinburgh, celebrated the premiere of Benjamin Sadd’s documentary about the life and work of the Russian artist Kirill Sokolov (1930 - 2004).

Filmed in 2013 and 2014, this is the first documentary to look at his work in depth, from his early life in Russia to his emigration to Berwick Upon Tweed and then Durham in the 1970s. Sadd’s film features new footage from Greece and Russia as well as an extensive interview with the artist’s widow, the renowned academic Dr Avril Pyman. Also appearing in the film to contextualize Sokolov’s achievements are the art historians and Russian specialists Professor John Milner, Professor John Elsworth and Dr Anthony Parton.

At the core of the film is an opportunity to see many works on paper, sculpture and oil paintings, which have been newly photographed from the studio and in some cases never exhibited outside his close circle of family and friends. Showcasing the artist’s range and vision across a wide range of media, the film makes the case for Sokolov as one of the most interesting artists working in Britain of the last 50 years.

The film screening was accompanied by a lecture on ‘The Concept of Tragedy in Russian Silver Age Thought’ by the academic Dr Avril Pyman. A leading translator of Russian poetry into English and a biographer of Aleksandr Blok and Pavel Florensky, Pyman has also written the major text on the Russian symbolist movement, A History of Russian Symbolism, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. She is a fellow of the British Academy.

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The Sutton Gallery and the Edinburgh Iranian Festival 2015

1/21/2015

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The Sutton Gallery is delighted to be partnering with the Edinburgh Iranian Festival as a venue for a number of events this February. We are very excited to be able to present the first exhibition in Scotland of the renowned Iranian artist Hassan Meshkinfam. Featuring oil paintings, watercolour landscapes and a unique sequence of collages based on the poet Nima Yushij, this exhibition will provide a cross-section into the work of this extremely interesting contemporary artist.

Born in 1954 to a gifted family of artists, Meshkinfam was educated in Iran and at the Besancon School of Fine Arts in Paris. He has exhibited his work widely both nationally and internationally and his work is in private and public collections in Iran, USA, Sweden, France, Germany, UK, Japan and the Czech Republic. In 2003, Meshkinfam made a major contribution to the cultural life of his city, Shiraz, by founding the first private museum of art in Iran: The Meshkinfam Museum.

The exhibition opens with a preview on Saturday 7th February from 5 - 7pm. The exhibition continues until the 28th February.

In addition to the exhibition, the gallery will also be hosting two very special events in partnership with the festival:

Nima Yushij; Inspiring Poetry, Music & Art
Date: Saturday 14th Feb 2015
Time: 20:30 - 22:00
Venue: The Sutton Gallery, 18a Dundas Street, EH3 6HZ
Entry: FREE AdmissionWhat could be more romantic on Valentine’s Day than Persian Poetry?

The work of the internationally acclaimed Iranian poet Nima Youshij (1896-1960), often regarded as the founder of modern Persian poetry, has inspired not only poets but many artists and musicians too.

Join us for an evening of poetry, music, and visual art at Sutton Gallery where in conjunction with an exhibition of Hassan Meshkinfam’s mixed media artworks, we will be presenting an evening of songs and words from the poet.

Hassan Meshkinfam’s work interprets and illustrates Nima’s poetry through arresting, dream-like imagery. Musician Majid Mokhberi will perform songs that take Nima’s verse as their lyrics. Members of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival Committee will read poems in both Persian and English, contextualising Nima’s life and work.

Persian Music; Lecture, Performance and Workshop
(Dr Parmis Mozafari)
Date: Friday 13th Feb 2015
Time: 20:0 - 21:00
Venue: The Sutton Gallery, 18a Dundas Street, EH3 6HZ
Entry: FREE Admission
This talk will cover a historical overview of the condition of female musicians and dancers in Iran. Dr Parmis Mozafari, who will be delivering this talk, is a research fellow at the Institute for Iranian Studies, University of St Andrew. She did her BA and MA in music in Iran and received her PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Leeds. She is a Santur player and has taught music in Iran and ethnomusicology and Persian music in the UK.
The talk will be followed by a short performance by Dr Mozafari on Santur, and an introductory workshop on Traditional Iranian instruments, including an opportunity to get hands-on experience.

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Roar Kjærnstad Opening

10/4/2014

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We had a great evening yesterday at the preview for Norwegian artist Roar Kjærnstad's exhibition, which runs until 25th October. Many of these works have been produced in the last month while Roar has been resident in Edinburgh. A particularly interesting new series are his works produced in response to the National Galleries of Scotland, including works responding to artworks by Alison Watt, Francis Bacon and others.

Roar was born in Espa, Norway in 1975. He studied at the Nansen Art School in Lillehammer before moving to Antwerp where he studied at the Royal Art Academy. During his stay in Flanders he studied Old Masters like Rubens, Van Dijck and Rembrandt. He has exhibited widely across Europe including in London, Spain, Denmark and Sweden.

Do come along to the gallery before the 25th October to see this fascinating body of new work!

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Cat Outram Opening 12th September 2014

9/13/2014

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We had a great opening for our Cat Outram exhibition, which opened on Friday. It's a great pleasure for us to be showing Cat's work in the gallery as we are all huge fans of her elegant compositions and distinctive style. Featuring a wide range of her etchings, including many new pieces, the exhibition focuses around 'light'. Continues until September 27th 2014.

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Gordon Cheape / Giorgio Granozio exhibition opening 4th July 2014

7/5/2014

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Here are a few photos from our July exhibition preview yesterday evening featuring the artwork of Gordon Cheape and Giorgio Granozio, both of whom live in Edinburgh. It was great to see so many people at the gallery. The exhibition continues until 26th July so there's plenty of chance to see it, so head down to Dundas Street.

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Colin Wilson paintings featured in Edinburgh Evening News

7/1/2014

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The paintings of Colin Wilson - currently on display at The Sutton Gallery - are causing quite a stir in Edinburgh. His hyper-real depictions of Edinburgh street scenes feature on the front page and in a double page spread of today's Edinburgh Evening News. Make sure you grab a copy to find out more and come in to the gallery to see them! The Evening News tweet below is definitely worthy of a RT, don't you think?

This is not a photo - it's a 'hyper real' painting by artist Colin Wilson. Find out more here http://t.co/OP5GbOKa49 pic.twitter.com/SLg7A8V2QK
— Evening News (@edinburghpaper) July 1, 2014