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Let’s Go: Glasgow

In The Guardian Adrian Searle reports that the Glasgow International Festival, founded in 2004, is slated to become a regular biennial. “Building on its low-budget, do-it-yourself approach, each edition has been better than the last. The project has slowly expanded, occupying not just established venues but studios and abandoned and derelict buildings around the city. It runs until April 27, but some projects will continue into the summer. There are shows, performances and concerts all over town. Glasgow has the most developed arts scene outside London, and many empty spaces. Successful local artists tend to stay (even if, like Douglas Gordon, they spend protracted periods in New York or Berlin), and the city supports a number of commercial galleries – The Modern Institute, Sorcha Dallas, the improbably named Mary Mary, as well as public sector spaces and museums.” Searle gives a shout to Tyrolean painter Ernst Caramelle, who has a painted installation at Mary Mary. “As well as making small, discrete paintings, Caramelle paints directly on the wall. Blocks of bright translucent colour slide over lintels. Black rectangles and rhomboids run along the bottom of walls, or complicate corners and doorways. He twists the way we see space, but his art is more than an optical game. It is understated and elusive. Caramelle deserves to be better known in the UK: I can imagine him making a beautiful show at Camden Arts Centre, or the Icon in Birmingham.” Read more.

2 Comments

  1. Tameshk
    April 15, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    Dear Sharon
    I just found the link to your intersecting blog on Modern Kicks. For me it is a discovery of sort and I am enjoying it.

  2. John Morris
    April 20, 2008 at 4:22 am

    I rest my case about the Whitney and also the Carnegie. I think Glasgow will become one of the benchmark events. Only an entire city serious about an active engagement with visual art can do a true contemporary survey.

    http://www.glasgowinternational.org/?node_id=1.8.1

    “* To host a contemporary visual arts festival in Glasgow, to present the work of internationally established artists, strengthen the international networks for the city�s artists/visual arts organisations and as a result promote Glasgow’s position as a major international centre for the production and presentation of visual art.

    * To present a curated programme of commissioned work and work that is new to the UK by established and emerging artists from across the globe in key venues, such as the Tramway, and CCA, capable of hosting works of scale that have potential for a particular kind of artistic impact. Additionally, and in contrast, to also commission emerging visual artists and artist led initiatives in Glasgow, allowing emergent practitioners to take on significant projects within a meaningful critical context.

    * To realise site-specific, city-wide programming in public spaces and non arts venues, including temporary and permanent public art works and socially engaged artistic interventions.

    * To attract local, national and international audiences and to sustain and develop an informed audience for the visual arts by promoting discussion and debate through a range of talks, tours, events, conferences and symposia linked to the programme.”

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