Ten
With my tenth solo exhibition approaching, I’m looking back at the shows that led to it. Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 2010, I’ve presented ten interconnected physical solo exhibitions, plus the solo virtual exhibition Journey of an Artwork and charity fundraisers. Between each, I’ve organised and participated in mixed and open shows, award exhibitions, collaborative projects and outreach events – including workshops, screenings and recently a performance – with a mounting environmental agenda. Artworks have been shown at COP21, 26 & 27; and at venues including Christie’s, The Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy, Tatha Gallery, Moncreiff-Bray, The Scottish Gallery and more.
September 2011:
Unearthed
In this first exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, a collection of found object based watercolour paintings introduced my working approach.
June 2013:
Years of Dust & Dry
A second exhibition at The Scottish Gallery saw this approach intensified, with a deeper focus on the sea and bodies of water, and over 200 paintings and constructions made using increasingly unconventional recycled materials.
July 2015:
Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud
As a result of a Royal Scottish Academy scholarship, an interest in travel and historic environmental events was ignited, leading to a body of artworks exhibited at The Scottish Gallery on recycled papers depicting, among other subjects, scenes of historic Great Floods in Florence & Paris and drought in southern Spain.
April – May 2016:
Surface | Part I of II
As my preoccupation with water took on a more prominent role in my practice, this pop-up solo at Gayfield Creative provided a comprehensive look back at water paintings – on a variety of surfaces – created between 2010 and 2016.
November 2016:
Perimetri Perduti (Perimeters Lost) | Part I of II
This exhibition and book launch in Florence’s Palazzo Lanfredini – headquarters of The British Institute of Florence – marked the 50th year since the city’s Great Flood of 1966. The launch event featured eyewitness accounts from those who lived through the flood and was followed by the Italian premiere of Roger Graef’s Why Save Florence.
January 2017:
Pelàda
To open The Scottish Gallery’s 175th anniversary celebrations, I was selected to exhibit as an ambassador of the gallery’s contemporary tier. Here, my focus shifted from Florence to Venice, and from the theme of historical inundation to present-day issues of mass tourism and rising sea levels.
January – February 2019:
Rising Horizon
A fifth solo exhibition with The Scottish Gallery zoomed out from my previous: from detailed depictions of Venice’s plight to the global issue of rising sea levels. Here, a climbing horizon-line was used as a tool to impart climate data; further explained in the accompanying publication and an in-conversation event with climate change scientist Dr Dave Reay. This exhibition saw new working materials including recycled plastic waste and metals.
January – February 2020
Horizon Rising | Fàire a’ Dìreadh
As Scotland’s Year of Coasts & Waters began, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre in North Uist presented a second instalment of my sea rise series alongside workshops and talks. New additions to the series referenced the gallery’s location, at the very edge of a low-lying island, as sea levels gradually climb.
April – May 2022:
Where Once the Waters | Venice Biennale 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic hit soon after Horizon Rising, resulting in the delay of my 2021 Biennale exhibition. The extra year allowed the expansion of my original idea and increased online activity during the period led to a more interactive project. Participants from around the world took part in my sea level survey, resulting in hundreds of personalised typed letter-artworks. These were combined with a series of 365 miniature seascapes. Various iterations of the two-part project have since been exhibited, with groupings of the works exhibited in the UK, USA & Egypt. One hundred of the miniature seascapes were shown during The Scottish Gallery’s exhibition Contemporary, and fifty can be found in Light on Water.
August 29th – September 28th 2024:
Light on Water
The title of my tenth solo exhibition possesses a dual meaning. While the show overall acts as a survey of key themes and materials, a main body of thirty paintings was created using a new approach. Cropped closeups of sea surface at once celebrate the sea’s brilliance, abstractly describing the play of light across its surface; whilst also referencing the very real issues presented by warming seawater, particularly in our Earth’s most vulnerable regions. Sign up to my newsletter for updates.