Iain Crichton Smith opening An Lanntair in its original upstairs premises in Stornoway Town Hall on the 8th of March 1985. Many in the picture are no longer with us, including Robbie Neish, Duncan ‘Major’ Morison, John Murray, Flora Macneil, Alasdair & Deirdre Macdonald, Donnie ’Bookie,’ Alasdair Jamieson, Douglas Ledbitter, Alec Blair, Donnie ‘Gazette’ Macinnes, Ina Maciver, Nan Macleod … The exhibition is In and Around the Palace, photos of the homeless in Edinb in the picture.
Photograph by Sam Maynard f
Turasachd:Touring1987
Iain Reid, Director of the Calous Gulbenkian Foundation with Ro Murray, An Lanntair Director, in van that the CGF funded and w served to tour and transport exhibitions to and from An Lan for many years.
Born in Dunfermline, Cumming’s time at Edinburgh College of Art was interrupted by 5 years ’ war service in the R.A.F. in India and Burma. After resuming his studies, he was awarded a Travelling Scholarship which he spent with a crofting family in Calanais in 1948. An experience that was to form the basis of his work and imagery for many years to come. This picture is a bequest to An Lanntair by the late James Shaw Grant
PaulStrand(1890-1976)
Tira’Mhurain(LandofBentGrass) 1954
One of the great pioneering names of 20th Century photography, Strand’s seminal image of the Sound of Eriskay was included in An Lanntair’s inaugural show in 1985. It was gifted to the people of the islands by his widow Hazel Strand and is held at An Lanntair.
RobbieNeish(1958–2007)
A Fine Art graduate of Glasgow School of Art and a member of An Lanntair’s first Committee in 1985, Robbie designed An Lanntair’s logo, a version of which is in use to this day
This painting by him, is shown in tribute.
Air an ochdamh latha den Mhàrt 1985 bha An Lanntair air fhosgladh gu foirmeil shuas staidhre ann an Talla-bhaile Steòrnabhaigh, leis an sgrìobhadair, ainmeil, uasal, Iain Crichton Mac a ’ Ghobhainn.
Bhon uair sin, tha sruth mhòr uisge air ruith fon drochaid. Ach an àite a bhith ag ainmeachadh gach duais is buaidh, gach cnocaid is àilean, gach dùbhlan is cunntas, no gach pearsa a stèidhich, a leasaich agus a chùm sinn suas, nach fhaod sinn dìreach a ràdh gu bheil an Lanntair a-nis mar phrìomh sholas ann an speuran-farsaing ealain na h-Alba. Taigh-sholais dìreach mar a tha ar n-ainm a ’ ciallachadh.
Airson comharrachadh ar turas tha an taisbeanadh seo a ’ coimhead air ais agus air adhart. Cruinneachadh de dh’obair bho cheathrad neachealain a tha sinn air a riochdachadh is a bhrosnachadh is cuideachadh ann an dòighean diofraichte thar nan ceithir deicheadan. Tha e a ’ gabhail a-steach pìosan bho chuid nach eil còmhla rinn a-nis, bho luchdcleachdaidh seasmhach, agus feadhainn a tha tràth nan dreuchd.
Mòran taing don a h-uile neach a chuidich ‘ sa ghabh pàirt.
On the 8th of March 1985 An Lanntair was officially opened in our original upstairs premises in Stornoway Town Hall by one of the Island’s most esteemed sons, the late writer Iain Crichton Smith.
Since then, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. But rather than labour the point with a list of triumphs and awards, landmarks and watersheds, challenges and reckonings, or the luminaries who established, developed and sustained us, suffice to say that An Lanntair is now a leading light in the arts firmament of Scotland. A beacon just as our name suggests.
To mark the occasion, this exhibition is both retrospective and looks to the future. An anthology, comprised of works by 40 of the artists we have represented, encouraged and supported in various capacities over these past four decades. It includes pieces by some who are no longer with us, by established practitioners, and by others who are at an earlier stage in their practice.
Grateful thanks to all who helped and contributed.
WillMacleanRSA
TheMelancholyofDeparture1986 Etching
This image, evoking eviction and emigration, by one of Scotland’s most distinctive and distinguished artists, was commissioned as part of a suite of 6 prints for As an Fhearann: From the Land, to celebrate the Centenary of the 1886 Crofting Act.
His commemorative cairns for the land struggle at Aignis, Gress and Back (with John Norgrove and Jim Crawford) and now at Reef, Uig and Galson have won many awards and are established cultural landmarks Along with Arthur Watson and Marian Leven, he also designed the Iolaire Centenary memorial at Holm Point, commissioned by An Lanntair.
Previous shows:
The Ring Net, 988; As an Fhearann: From the Land 1986; The Ancient Mariner 1990s; and Veering Westerly 2016
The birds came from a nearby fish farm, where they had broken their necks trying to take fish from a cage. “The composition is such that if unravelled, [the birds] would stretch into a fishing line of sorts.”
Dilworth often encases the remains of animals and birds within his sculptures. Like the heart in a living body, they empower the sculpture in conceptual and symbolic ways
Acts of Faith from 1992 was a groundbreaking show for Steve and An Lanntair, touring to CCA, Dundee, Aberdeen Art Gallery among other venues, establishing him as a unique creative force in in contemporary sculpture.
Previous shows:
4 Harris Artists; The Letterbox Project 1990; St Kilda Mailboat action 1990; Acts of Faith 1992; Mortal Remains 2011
Hoffmann was ‘di living at the Barra 80s. His first show Gallery in Edinbur Gallery (who boug George Mackay B collection.) Island years later.
Previous shows: Portraits from the Island Universe 19
IainBrady Ah-UileCear
AllAnglesCo
Resin
Iain was an art te Nicolson Institute member and a pr artist whose publi seen round Storno Gearraidh na h-Aibhne.
Previous shows: New Myths, Old Models 1989; The Letterbox Project 1990; Listening to Stones 1994
GusWylie
Gus Wylie’s work is synonymous with the Hebrides from his great photographic essays of the 70s and 80s during which he was guided and mentored by the late Finlay Macleod.
Cuimhneachaidheandhe’nMetagama:
This photo was used as a template and inspiration for the exhibition poster and book cover for one of our most successful and influential exhibitions As an Fhearann: From the Land, which celebrated the 1886 Crofting Act. The show toured to many venues including The Third Eye Centre, National Museums of Scotland, Macmanus Galleries, Dundee and in 1989, to seven venues coast to coast in Canada.
SeacaidSceadaichte:DecoratedJacket,Stornoway,1981
This image of the Stornoway ‘ narrows, shows the Drillmaster rig in the distance, during its construction at Arnish point.
Previous shows:
As an Fhearann 1986; Hebridean Light 1992; The Hebrideans 2007 (retrospective)
SamMaynard NoHillwalking,1983
35mm TriX film, on Giclee Hahnemühle German Etching paper.
This image, for the 1983 Labour Party election campaign, foregrounded the issue of land ownership in the Highlands and Islands.
It appeared in As an Fhearann 1986, and in many publications including on the front cover of the London Review of Books. It was a collaboration with Malky Maclean
One of An Lanntair’s 3 founding members along with architect Andy Bruce, [then] art teacher Malky Maclean, and at the time staff photographer for the Stornoway Gazette, Sam featured prominently as an artist. Both commissioning and documenting the construction of An Sulaire, the last ever Sgoth Mòr Niseach, by John Murdo Macleod, and which can be seen moored in the harbour to this day.
Previous shows:
Lewis Past & Present 1985; As an Fhearann 1986; Calanais 1995; An Sgoth 1996
LauraMaynard
Bara
Mixed
‘Lookin
expans
Laura M
Lannta
Duncan
Dundee
Her exhibition Wave Migration w celebration of the surfing comm
Lewis
Previous shows:
Wave Migration 2019
ChristineDavidson
Mixed media
I returned home after graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 1988, realising all the inspiration I could need was within the shores I had left behind
Painting and drawing in a traditional figurative style, I look to find beauty in the ordinary, everyday scenes as I make my daily trek with our dogs around the machair. The remnants of a disappearing way of life - the changing
Christine’s show of portraits was the first solo exhibition by a female artist at An Lanntair
Previous shows: Me by Myself: Mi Fhìn leam Fhìn 1989
Murdo’s photographic essay about the homeless in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket was the inaugural show at An Lanntair, followed by his travelogue of a journey through the Outer Hebrides in 1988 titled Moving South.
This image is from Gnùis (Face), our 25th anniversary show which showcased work, mostly portraits, from his long career as a photographer with The Guardian.
Previous shows:
In and Around the Palace (inaugural show) March 1985; As an Fhearann 1986; Moving South 1988; Gnùis 2010
MoiraMaclean
Archipelago,2002
Wallpaper collage
‘I harvest, or ‘ rescue ’ , old wallpaper from abandoned, derelict croft houses. I love these time capsules, bathed in silence; stilled lives, possessions left as if awaiting return.
Untypically, the wallpaper for this map, which came from an old kitchen in Valtos, was donated to me. In its layers, I immediately saw the geology, terrain and contour, that evoked the island archipelago from the Butt to Barra.
Previous shows: The Poetics of Space 2002; The Sail Loft 2005; Buisneachd Witchcraft 2012; Iùl; Reul-bhad: Constellation (Dark Skies)
KennethBurns2025
SiabostbhoDheas:SouthShawbost
Mixed media on canvas
‘Part of a set of recent and current paintings which have great personal significance for me as they capture the various places where my ancestors lived.
Like many with deep roots by the Atlantic, I have a profound sense of place, heritage, and my forebears: the people who cleared the rocks, built walls and cultivated the land. Both my maternal grandparents come from Shawbost.’
Previous shows: Vistas, 1987
After graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 1985, I was awarded the John Kinross Memorial Fund Scholarship, to study the art and culture in Florence. I lived there for a year.
Turas Cuairt tro na h-Eilein (A Journey through the Hebrides), 1993
I painted my way through all the islands of the Outer and Inner Hebrides, funded by an Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Award.
DonaldSmith IasgarMòr:Fisherman Oil
on Panel (circa 1970s)
Donald Smith 1926 - 2014 was one of the post-war Scottish artists responding to enormous social and cultural shifts in Europe and America. He was an outward looking Gael, engaged with the creative culture of mainland Scotland, and the Isle of Lewis. His powerful paintings of working islanders feature in public and private collections in the UK, US and Europe. In 2019, an ambitious exhibition at An Lanntair focused on his large-scale harbour paintings and portraits, subsequently shown on North Uist and at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh.
The Paintings of an Islander (published by Acair), is still available.
Previous shows:
Càirdeas: Affinities in 1985; Sùil Timcheall: A Look Around in 1988 and a major retrospective, Eileanach: Islander, 2019, Edinburgh City Art Centre in 2021
Arabic & Pigment, £1,200.00
Born on Merseyside in 1947, David Greenall left school at fifteen and worked in fishing and building before taking up painting in his late twenties. In 1982, he took a year-long foundation course, followed by a fine art printmaking course culminating in a BA Honours Degree in 1986. In 1991, with his wife the painter Ruth O’Dell, he moved to South Dell on the Isle of Lewis.
His painting and drawings are infused with a knowledge and understanding of light and its happy accidents. Mixing his own colours from raw pigments and blending mediums such as wax, resin, oil and egg tempera, his work has great vigour and an unerring draughtsmanship.
Previous shows: Broad Bay 2002; Peant is Creadh Paint & Clay 2024
RuthO’Dell
Ath-Dhealbhadh:Metamorphosis,2021,
£1,600
This is one of the last paintings in a long series of work expressing my personal experience of the menopause. I hoped to portray the painful, unsettling but freeing process of aging, self-discovery and personal growth. The butterflies and printed leaves symbolising rebirth, change and renewal. Ruth was a featured artist in one of the last shows in our previous premises She moved to South Dell on the Isle of Lewis in 1991.
SueBlair StacMara:SeaStack,2023
Stoneware Slab, Impressed Lines, Black Textured Slip and Glaze.
Sue arrived on the islands in 1973 and founded Borgh Pottery (originally Stornoway Pottery) with her husband, Alex, who worked alongside her until his death in 2013
She holds a degree in from Gray’s School of says: "Borgh Pottery as now, evolved through our partnership."
Previous shows: Parras (Paradise) 1994
MarkJohnston AberdeenStone
"Why don't we underst the 21st century, after Until that time, we hav something we don't un
A graduate of Glasgow Fine Art Photography composite photograph featured in our 10th an Calanais: The Atlantic subsequent solo show toured to the National Scotland and the Nati Slovakia in Bratislava.
Previous shows: Calanais: The Atlantic Petrified Garden 1997
DonaldUrquhart
Pencil on paper
A Lewis based artist who exhibits internationally, including projects in Japan, Ireland, USA and Brazil, his work encompasses a range of mediapainting, audio, text, video and photography, site-specific installations and commissioned public artworks, often architectural in nature.
At its core is the discipline of drawing, reductive and highly formal, what has been referred to as ‘epic simplicity’. This is a typical example, engaging the viewer in a quiet and poetical dialogue about landscape
Previous shows:
‘Grey Weighted Notes (First solo exhibition) 1997, toured to Aberdeen Art Gallery and the Talbot Rice Centre in Edinburgh in 1998.
‘An Abideil: An Alphabet and Other Notes from the Landscape (Based on the Gaelic Alphabet) 2009, Aviary 2010
Dalziel+Scullion Fàire:Horizon2024
24-hour time lapse of the horizon line on the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Lewis. 4k single channel video work, on a ti l
Leading lights in the contemporary arts in Scotland, now based in Lewis, Dalziel + Scullion have represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale among numerous major commissions and exhibitions in a stellar career.
ine we can see, a m for yet never zon is where the t, a boundary he eye perceives nd imagines. nd the horizon are hopes and dreams erges without
‘I have always been intrigued by the island phenomenon of celebratory banners attached to round-abouts, or cattle grids, marking a variety of special occasions. Often made out of old bedsheets, or large pillowcases. Spray paint applied loosely, with the unforgettable addition of nicknames. A very curious narrative is created within the landscape when photographed completely out of context – though the strong connection to people and place remains.
Brought up in Achmore, Calum Angus studied Fine Art Photography at Glasgow School Art and has exhibited widely throughout UK & Europe Work in many private and public collections, including GOMA, Glasgow, and the Arts Councils of Wales and Northern Ireland.
Previous shows: By Fin by Wing by Hoof 1990; Isolate 1994;
Touching Inheritance (with Sandra Kennedy) 2008; Unnad Indigenous, 2024 (new and retrospective work, publication by Acair).
MaryMorrison
Mymusicisthemusicofyourstones,2025 Oil on Canvas, £3,800
‘‘My work responds to the elemental qualities of the islands, suggesting liminal spaces, edges and tidal lines. I evoke a sense of place and natural forms through fluid paint effects combined with annotation relating to mapping, measuring and music. Going beyond the surface is important to me, the intention is for the work to reveal itself slowly. This work is a response to the poem ‘Lewis’ by Iain Crichton Smith which echoes, beautifully, the ongoing themes in my work.
‘It follows me, that black island without ornament, Which I am always questioning…. Sea, immortal waters, you are the harmony around us forever. We exist in your music, In your blizzard of white gulls….
Wherever I am, you are with me, My music is the music of your stones, … You are the book which I always study In sunsets over the Minch, You are my gaunt theme, my poem which burns in water.’
Previous shows:
Obair Ùr: New Work (with Sandra Kennedy) 1992; Fonn 2018
AnneCampbell ‘AnGleann ’2013
MhairiKillin AnTaistealachd:ThePilgrimage,2012.
5/8 Giclee print with etched silver and silver wire detail
Mhairi Killin is from the Isle of Iona. Her work explores how belief structures - religious, mythopoeic, and socio-political - have shaped the physical and metaphysical spaces of the Hebrides.
Her practice sees to counter the notion of islands not as peripheral, romantic and marginal – but as progressive centres from which we can experience a unique yet relevant perspective on the forces shaping our futures.
Previous shows: Re-Soundings 2016
SandraKennedy
FrasanTròcair(MercyShowers),2024 Oil on canvas
‘‘This piece is a thank you for the sky: shapeshifting from roaring lions to playful lambs.
The painting defines and re-shapes memories of walking out in the open or the instinct to get near a window. Daydreaming is part of the painting process, the colour gradients, rhythms, and patterns taking on a significance as they make their marks.’
Eddie is a Fine Art lecturer at The University of Dundee
He has exhibited internationally: paintings, sculpture, art publications across a wide range of media.
This image is from Pròiseact nan Ealan’s Great Book of Gaelic project (An Leabhar Mòr). A collaboration between 100 artists twinned with poets, from Ireland and Scotland. Calligrapher: Louise Donaldson.
The poem is Mo Shinsear / My Ancestors by Sean O Curraoin:
‘My ancestors set the snare And went hunting They laid the bird trap In the most advantageous place.’
Previous shows: Line Controller 1995; Bird of the Devil (Aviary) 2010
IanStephen ‘themoretheechoes,’2024.
Unique unfolded copy framed in teak reclaimed from decking of ‘Newark, (abandoned Stornoway harbour). Phrases engraved in contributor’s handwriting on creel-bases from Mull driftwood.
From a 1999 residency with an Tobar, Gordon Maclean and the inshore fishing community of Mull and Iona. Recordings became interventions on a 1959 Admiralty chart, also an artists’ book ‘Inshore pink and black’ with audio CD.
Ian Stephen was born in a flat on Kenneth St. His travels, land and sea have fed into work in many forms, often developed with an Lanntair:
The QR code will activate a short oral description:
Previous shows:
Freasdal | Providence II 1994 (with Caroline Tisdall); Broad Bay with David Greenall 1997; Green Waters (with Ian Hamilton Finlay and Graham Rich) 1998; Lobht nan Seòl | The Sail Loft (with Moira Maclean, Carina Fihn and Mikko Paakkola), 2005; Domestic Shamanism – Mariehamn, Åland, 2009; Grammar of Wavelength, 2016, Bheil rud caillte | Is a Thing Lost..? 2011
Sharmanka TheBoat
SHARMANKA was founded by sculptor-mechanic Eduard Bersudsky and theatre director Tatyana Jakovskaya in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg) Russia, and moved to Scotland in the mid-90s. With an extensive record of national and international tours and exhibitions, its dynamic shows are layered with cross-cultural stories
Am Beairt: The Loom, a kinemat created from a deconstructed Hattersley loom was commissioned by An Lanntair and its reconstruction featured in a BBC Alba documentary.
Eduard is also the lead artist and co-creator of the Millennium Clock Tower at the National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh).
Previous shows: Travelling Circus 2005; Gothic Kinetic 2010; Am Beairt (The Loom) 2016
JulieBrook Stac-teine:Firestack
From 1989 Julie Brook has lived and worked in remote landscapes in Scotland; Hoy, Orkney (1989); the west coast of Jura (1990-94); on the uninhabited island of Mingulay (1996-2011). Also in different parts of the desert in Central and Southwest Libya (2008-09) travelling with Tuareg guides; Syria (2010); NW Namibia (2011-14).
She makes large scale sculptural work outside using different materials using photography and film as part of the process of working.
Previous shows: An Dealbh Mòr, 2007; Made Unmade, 2016
ReinhardBehrens
RechargingtheBatteries
Naboland is Behrens’ imagined polar otherland in which the toy submarine is a recurrent motif. In this instance it has arrived in the Calanais Stone Circle, for our 10th Anniversary Touring show.
This year his own anniversary exhibition, ’50 Years of Naboland’, will be at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh.
Previous shows: Naboland 1985; The Origins of Golf; As an Fhearann 1986; Calanais: The Atlantic Stones 1995
SeanFraser
Cast glass
A graduate from the Royal College of Art in 2017, Inverness-born artist Shaun Fraser’s first solo exhibition was at An Lanntair.
Primarily a glass artist, his work comments on notions of connection, identity and belonging, and references the raw, emotive, elemental landscape of his native Highlands and Islands.
It includes glass and bronze casts of peats from Lewis moorland originals, while glass sheep skulls reference Highland history, emigration and the Gaelic diaspora.
‘The paper for this piece was handmade from common plants growing in the area and is based on an OS Map, surveyed in 1852-3.
‘The area defined in plant fibre paper marks the boundary of Mangurstadh Common Grazings. The colours and textures of the fibre are used to define contemporary habitat definitions e.g. coastal heath and moorland. The place names are as given on the OS map.
Many are derived from Old Norse and together with archaeological traces in the landscape reveal that the land has been farmed and grazed by sheep and cattle since the Bronze Age.’
Previous shows: Mangurstadh, 2013
MhairiCorr
Struan2024
Paper pulp built over wire and plaster frame
Mhairi graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1981 and is now an established paper pulp artist who has exhibited her figurative work throughout the UK. Her distinctive, appealing figures are instantly recognisable. She says ‘Struan has a genial nature, going with the flow and getting along with everyone ’ Stone Child was the first exhibition to open at An Lanntair after lockdown.
AnnaMacleod Dus-ReulStardust,2020
Pencil and Gouache on Fabriano, £900
Anna is an independent artist and researcher based in Leitrim, Ireland. She has an MA in visual arts practices and is a former full-time lecturer in sculpture and interdisciplinary practices.
She has won numerous awards, exhibited and undertaken residencies in France, Canada and New Mexico, and has a deep connection to the islands as her grandfather Rev Norman Macleod was the minister in the manse at Miavaig, Uig, who did guest appearances at Baille na Cille church.
AnnieCattrell ProfileI&II,2022
Jesmonite
Cattrell’s practice is often informed by working with specialists in neuroscience, meteorology, engineering, psychiatry and the history of science. And by the parallels and connections between art, science and the poetic.
She has exhibited nationally and internationally and undertaken many large-scale public art commissions. A tutor at the Royal College of Art since 2000 she is a Member of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA)and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
In 2022, she undertook a 6-week residency in Lewis as part of the RSA’s residency programme. This work, cast from rock formations on the west side, is from that time.
Previous shows:
Everything is Connected 2022
JamesLumsden FromthePointSeries(8/19)2019
Acrylic on canvas, £2,200
‘”The primary concern in my paintings is the creation of a sense of light, colour, depth and feeling.
Using a historical glazing process, yet utilising acrylic paint and mediums, I build multiple thin layers of translucent colour; layer upon layer, glaze upon mark upon glaze – concealing, revealing, action, reaction, until a sense of light and depth is achieved within the process. ”
Previous shows:
Strata 2023
‘‘For the past decade I have lived and worked between Edinburgh and Lower Bayble and have used the studio in Lewis to develop a series of paintings – ‘The Point Series’.
While rooted in the same considerations of light, depth and mark– and although essentially abstract – these paintings allude to landscape and a sense of place which has developed from living on Lewis.
DanielleMacleod Slige#2,2025
Cyanotype toned with willow
‘An Lanntair's influence in my practice began with my participation in the Artist Support Program in 2020, which was a catalyst for the development of my work post-art school.
From participating in the graduate exhibition in 2021 to collaborating on the exhibition Na Boireannaich with Alice Macmillan in 2022, An Lanntair has been a constant presence in my artistic milestones. This gallery has been integral to my journey thus far, so it feels only right to exhibit work that demonstrates the evolution of my practice.
‘Slige #2 is an image which brings new life to a mask made for a previous project.
From the very beginning of my practice, I have been sculpting with materials gathered from the landscape around me. Now, through the botanical toning process, I am able to incorporate my local environment into my final prints.’
Previous shows: Mìr air Mhir; Na Boireannaich 2022
Linocut
Alice Macmillan is an artist and printmaker based in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland Specialising in linocuts, Alice’s work explores the flora and fauna of the Western Isles.
Through detailed markmaking Alice aims to capture the subtle movement and tonal qualities of ‘microenvironments’ bringing the scenes to life with details such as: drops of rain, ripples in water or shimmering fish scales.
Combined with the subject these details create an energy, a snapshot of a moment in nature allowing the viewer to experience the essence of an encounter with the wild.
'Shorebirds' is an original linocut inspired by the birds and wildflowers around the Hebridean coastline
Previous shows:
Na Boireannaich 2022
Wet plate collodion positive
‘This photograph was made using the Victorian era photographic process which requires liquid silver, glass, collodion and cyanide to produce an image. It was created in a WW2 observation bunker on a clifftop in the West of Ireland I converted into a makeshift darkroom, where according to legend, St Patrick is said to have driven the snakes from Ireland. The last image I made that day, I experimented with the chemistry to capture something more spectral, and let my hands guide me in the darkness. This was the result - the great sea stack of Dún Briste rising from the Atlantic, my bunker shelter just visible on the right.
MhairiLaw ‘Cliof:Cliff,'
Medium format photograph, inkjet print, 2015
Shown as a part of eilean | island a multi-media exhibition with artist Pat Law, exploring the connection between people and place on the Isle of Lewis. in September 2015, Mhairi went on to win The Jill Todd Photographic Award later that year with a selection of the project’s images.
Based on the Isle of Lewis Mhairi uses analogue film photography to explore the landscape.
In 2023 she established the photography gallery and darkroom facility ‘Island Darkroom’ where she has developed an exciting exhibition and residency program
Previous shows:
eilean | island 2015, Iùl (mentored Artists), Bho Moch gu Dubh: Dawn to Dark 2019, Reul-bhad: Constellation (Dark Skies) 2022; Zodiac Journey (with Jill Smith) 2025
DeljeemRai Sonya
Deljeem Rai is a Nepali photographer alternating between Glasgow and the Isle of Lewis.
Through sensitive portraiture he explores themes of identity, belonging and community.
He won the British Journal of Photography
Portrait of Britain Award in 2023 and 2024 and was a finalist in the Scottish Portrait Awards in 2023 His images have been exhibited across Scotland.
This portrait is part of a larger project called ‘Cearns’ that celebrates the community that lives there.
Forthcoming show at An Lanntair in 2026.
JonMacleod
202 Digital print
The map references a way of life practised in Lewis until the 1950’s or in some cases the 1960’s with cattle taken to moorland àirighean/shielings from early May until early August by young people and the older generation. A time of joy, tending cattle, a time of first love. The map speculates on the connections between young people from overlapping shieling territories meeting on the moor on summer nights and subsequent marriages.
The network of lines on the map mirrors the paths between shielings and the village, the Rathad nam banachagan/the road of the milkmaids. The map is one of intimacy, both of people and place. (With thanks to Anne Campbell and Calum Macleod)
Previous Shows:
Mhòinteach / The Moor (2007); Deiseal
As we celebrate 40 years, we sincerely thank all our funderspast and present - whose support has helped An Lanntair thrive as a hub for creativity, culture, and community.
