A couple of decades ago, it might have been unthinkable that Glasgow, a city once financially impoverished and culturally bereft, would find itself with a thriving arts scene and as Francis McKee, Curator of Glasgow International said, be “home to a disproportionate number of visual artists of international standing.”
This month the city will host not just one, but two major international contemporary arts events. At first glance this might seem like a serious scheduling faux pas, but in fact it is very deliberate and the result of tireless campaigning by supporters such as Sir Timothy Clifford (director general of the Scottish National Galleries) and Art impresario Richard Demarco.
In previous years, the Glasgow Art Fair has incorporated a mini exhibition called RAW – Real Art Week, 9 days of exhibitions during the Fair utilising several galleries around the city. Last year it was author and events organiser Peter Irvine’s vision that Glasgow should build on the success of RAW, extend its ambition and host an International event to rival Liverpool’s Biennial.
It’s been something of a surprise to the city’s critics that Glasgow even attempted such an event. Last year the Sunday Herald reported on the announcement of the then unnamed annual biennial and cited criticisms by artist Adrian Wiszniewski about Glasgow’s previous track record of lack of commitment to festivals.
“Glasgow is a very fleeting city in terms of the projects it takes on… it is a city that is always starting something new. If it were to host an annual visual arts festival it couldn’t just forget it after a couple of years. There would have to be real long-term commitment.”
Happily, you won’t have to wait long to see Irvine’s vision realised and to see if the City’s supporters have been justified in their campaigning. April 21st sees the launch of the Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Arts, known in short as Gi. This will be Glasgow’s first curated and commissioning festival – Francis McKee is the curator. As a measure of the scale of the new event, it is the well-established Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair that has been incorporated into the new event. Opening on 28th April and now in its 10th year, this Fair has become the place to buy, sell and view art in Scotland.
Any concerns that the city will be unable to generate sufficient interest in contemporary art to sustain 2 such events simultaneously, are dismissed by Clare Simpson of Glasgow City Council, “Glasgow Art Fair already generates a significant audience, brings visitors to the city who have an interest in contemporary art, brings gallerists and members of the professional art world, and therefore Gi provides more of a reason for them to come to Glasgow. Also, there is a crossover in terms of Extension -grassroots organisations/cutting edge art in an art market context.”
Glasgow International has no particular theme but will instead reflect a wide range of work with a strong focus on local artists both emerging and established as well as international works previously unseen in the UK.
The high-profile names are Jake and Dinos Chapman whose offering is titled, ‘My brother went to see hell and all I got was this lousy souvenir’ and apparently closely resembles their ‘Hell’ which was destroyed in the Saatchi collection fire last year.
Glasgow’s own Turner Prize winner, Douglas Gordon will be shown and at 64 Osborne Street, a new space has been specifically created for the festival to exhibit works by Glasgow based Smith/Stewart – Stephanie Smith and Edward Stewart.
One of the obvious highlights of the whole festival will be at Tramway, one of Glasgow’s foremost performing and visual arts venues. The Peaceful War is a specially curated exhibition of selected works from the world famous Jumex Collection in Mexico; it will be the first time that works from the collection have been shown in Europe.
At Glasgow School of art will be the tasty, Campbell’s Soup, curated by Neil Mulholland featuring the work of Steven Campbell. This exhibition, “takes stock of his crucial contributions both to Scottish culture and to the international development of postmodern painting.” Showing alongside Campbell will be 20 other artists representing his precursors, his peers and others.
Amongst the international artists on show will be American artist Barbara Kruger in an installation at the Gallery of Modern Art that utilizes, “the walls, floor, columns and skylight window areas of the top floor gallery.”
All in all, there will be over 100 artists exhibited reflecting a major operation of cooperation and collaboration from the many, diverse venues throughout the city.
Just a week after the Gi kicks off, the Glasgow Art Fair opens on George Square in the city centre. Established and newer works, selected from 53 galleries from all over the UK and as far flung as New Zealand, will be exhibiting at individual stands in the main pavilion. In another pavilion will be ‘Extension’, returning for the 3rd year and showcasing works from 9 of the most innovative and cutting edge visual arts organisations from Scotland and the rest of the world: Aurora, The Changing Room, Collective Gallery, The Embassy, GENERATOR projects, Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Lapland, Market Gallery and Volume.
In addition you can investigate Talking Art curated by In Media Res. In Glasgow Art Fair’s dedicated lecture space, In Media Res curate a programme of lively chaired discussions, artist’s talks and practical workshops. Writers, corporate collectors, teachers and artists all talk about their approaches to buying, interpreting, making and displaying art.
One of their most popular schemes, SPIN will be returning to the Fair this year. SPIN is a joint initiative by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Contemporary Art Society, “created to help encourage a greater understanding and appreciation of art and the nature of art patronage by nurturing early and grass roots interest in new work and enhancing people’s initial experience of it.”
What this means is that you can enjoy an informal Tour of the Fair at the hands of Spin volunteers (young artists and art historians), meet gallery owners and chat about the works on show, browse the Spin library of exhibition catalogues and books about contemporary art and even hop aboard the bus for a Spin around the City meeting artists and curators along the way.
The two events are both in the capable organisational hands of Uz Events. During the past decade Uz Events has established for itself an international reputation in event management, and has transformed the festival scene in Glasgow as well as producing events in Porto, New York, Sydney, Delhi, and Johannesburg.
For further information and full details on the programme for both events please visit the following sites:
http://www.uzevents.com
http://www.glasgowinternational.org
http://www.glasgowartfair.com
