KG Gazette vol 4

ART NEWS FROM KILMORACK GALLERY

June 2012 Issue 4

15 years of Kilmorack 2 new artists for June Caledonian Club exhibition

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elcome to the new digital KG gazette. Not only is this better for the environment but it lets us include more images and links to related things. It’s also easier for you to send it on to friends.

In this issue we celebrate fifteen years of the gallery, and welcome the introduction of two two new artists , Pat Semple and Lizzie Rose, to our fold. We also look at sculpture in the summer show, and round up some of the news and events of 2012 so far.

Gallery Director Tony Davidson

Gallery Manager Ruth Tauber

kilmorack gallery the old kilmorack church by beauly, inverness-shire iv4 7al

+44 (0) 1463 783 230 art@kilmorackgallery.co.uk www.kilmorackgallery.co.uk

Looking Back: Fifteen Years of Kilmorack Gallery There’ll be a few bottles of fifteenprinters and the mechanics of the year-old malt on the night of our music player. We all suffered for our summer show. Any solstice is worth art in 1997. a dram – winter or summer – but One early landmark show brought this one is special for us for it will Helen Denerley and James Hawkins be fifteen years to the day that we together (1998). On the far wall was first opened our doors to what was an abstract Hawkins triptych, still a packed preview. My shy twentyeight year old’s speech broke all the longest painting to be in the records for gallery. shortness. ‘I’m It was so emotional that it took a great not one for long work, speeches... six of us and heavy lifting thank you for inferring gear to manoeuvre it. coming and the thank you to the mountain through artists.’ I would its reflections. In front of this was say the same now for it’s been a great fifteen years. Here are some the gallery’s first showing of Helen recollections.

Denerley’s work which included her unforgettable pack of wolves.

Looking back at photographs of This sculpture toured with a music/ our first show I’m reminded that dance/sculpture show put on in there was no wood-burning stove. the days when there was a panWinters were unbearably cold. And Highland week of culture. This was also when the gallery gained for two years I took a perverse satisfaction in seeing dedicated a large guardian lizard. I still don’t art-collectors getting out of their know how it got there. It must have cars and putting on hats and gloves crawled from the river Beauly and before they entered a space where attached itself to our wall. not only did water in the taps stop flowing, but so too did ink in the Gerald Laing still holds the record for the tallest and heaviest work to be shown here. It is an honour to have shown his ‘Anna Karina’ painting (2002). This consisted of 9 large canvases assembled together to make a work almost the full height of our beautiful church building. And the heaviest? In all ways this was Gerald. The floor of the church still bears the grooves made from bringing in his ‘Hamburg Triptych.’ This was a dark but fantastic piece… so emotional that it took six of us and heavy lifting gear to manoeuvre it.

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Allan MacDonald’s solo shows (2004 and 2010) have been memorable too. The first of these was in 2004 and contained his ‘dark but somehow uplifting’ St Kilda work. In the second MacDonald’s

work was lighter and more airy.

People queued to get in and argued over paintings in both shows, and I had to constantly restrain Allan from coming in to ‘improve’ his paintings.

The following (2005) year we showed Heather Jansch’s drift-wood horses. This was three months before the demand for her work shot up, and there was suddenly a ten-year waiting list and an extra zero.

Vronskaya’s ground-breaking iconostas show (2006) must be mentioned too. It was an example of how an artist’s work should fill a space like this. This was the show where a vital self-portrait was stolen from the framers. Everything thing was brilliant. Everything sold; from her hermaphrodite self-portrait, to the collection of fifteen-minute oil portraits which can now be seen in Eden Court Theatre in Inverness. …and the future? That is the exciting bit.

Two new artists this June Pat Semple RSW

Kilmorack Gallery at the Caledonian Club Autumn 2012

Memories, of places, relationships, spirituality and her personal journey in life all go into Semple’s (b.1939) work.

They are echoes of the world, directed at a vulnerable spot which is hard for us to guard, and that makes them strong and hard hitting.

We have been trying to get Pat Semple to show with us for all of our fifteen years, and at last she is letting us have some of her very sought after work.

Lizzie Rose Few artists are as masterful with their use of line as Lizzie Rose (b.1972) This creates a power in her work - both ferocious and calm - that is a joy to bring into the gallery. I am certain that all visitors to our summer show will relish the opportunity to see new work by this Argyll based artists.

Kilmorack Gallery will take an exhibition of work to the Caledonian Club later this year.

We look forward to showcasing our artists work in the elegant surroundings of the club in the heart of Belgravia. Keep contact the gallery if you wish an invitation to this London exhibition. www.caledonianclub.com

Own Art Scheme Don’t forget the wonderful own art scheme. It offers interest free loans to purchase art. There’s just a short on-line form, some documents to be signed and you can take the artwork away. The loan covers up to £2,000 and is always paid back over ten months.

Christopher Wood RSW 10th August - 22nd September 2012

For example, you could take home Vonnegut by Colin Brown today, for just £49.50 per month for 10 months.

Kilmorack Gallery News Round Up Eugenia Vronskaya in Paris, Leonie Gibbs in London, George Wyllie’s passing and reviews of 2012 exhibitions so far.

Spring has been full of activity for Kilmorack Gallery artists. Not only creating new work for our summer show, but also preparing for exhibitions elsewhere.

Eugenia Vronskaya has been busy with her first show in Paris at Jane Roberts Fine Arts. If you are going to Paris the show is on at 65 Rue du Faubourg Saint Hornre until 6th July.

George Wyllie sadly passed away in May at the grand old age of 90. He was an inspriation to many, and Helen Denerley recalls a visit opposite.

Georgina Coburn has written two reviews for Northings, one of Henry Fraser and David Cook, whose ‘visceral potency’ she admires.

Also reviewed is the current show: Allan MacDonald and Lynn McGregor. There’s still time to see the exhibition as it runs until 16th June.

‘George came to Strathdon twice to do workshops as part of a local festival. Taking a leaf out of his book we challenged him to come up with something based on local issues.

‘The small population of Strathdon didn’t quite know how to take it when they were faced with a giant wooden rabbit in a wheelie bin. The rabbit was soon stolen and an appeal went out to return it even though it represented the problem of the expanding population of rabbits and the dislike of the newly introduced wheelie bins at the time.

The rabbit was returned and lived its days out in the local primary school.’

Kirstie Cohen

summer of sculpture...

Leonie Gibbs exhibited in London again, with a show in May. We hope to have new work by Gibbs in the gallery for summer.

sea pool - Lotte Glob

Sandaig Otter Maquette Laurence Broderick,

Galina vii - Gerald Laing.

10th August - 22nd September 2012

Summer means being outside and outside is where sculpture usually belongs. If, however, you must be inside (and we all know the weather is often to blame for this) Lotte Glob’s geological ceramics might help you forget.

cow Helen Denerley

Be quiet and orderly in your life that you may be wild and revolutionary in your art.

Gustave Flaubert

caterline coast - Helen Glassford