ART EXHIBITIONS

It’s been another great year for our donated gallery at Skypark! This year’s highlights are Reset Glasgow, The Royal Photographic Society’s Scottish Annual Exhibition and Kris Kesiak’s Woman@COP26 that is running to February 2023.

THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

The Royal Photographic Society opened its Scottish Annual Exhibition 2022. The collection of work by 35 of the Society’s members, captured all walks of life through a lens when travel was limited. Under the banner ‘Photography for Everyone’, The Royal Photographic Society embraces all forms of photographic practice and is open to anyone with an interest in photography. The Royal Photographic Society was founded in 1853 to make the art and science of photography more available, and is now a registered charity, with the mission of bringing inspiration, connectivity, and creativity through photography to people of all ages and backgrounds. There are 16 Regional Hubs in the UK, a world wide network of International chapters, and 16 Special Interest Groups covering all aspects of photography. RPS Scotland is theRESET GLASGOW largest geographical regional hub, and has around 600 members stretching from Dumfries to Lerwick, and more or less everywhere inbetween. At the RPS Scotland AGM Our first exhibition of the year “Reset Glasgow” was shot by photographer each year the attendees gather with 4 of their current images, and we and journalist Laura Coventry. During the first lockdown, Laura headed into the city centre of Glasgow in April 2020 to capture the city as it never looked before – empty! It was as if someone had pressed the ‘reset’ button, which inspired Laura’s photography project’s name “Reset Glasgow”. have an open forum where we choose a representative set of 40 images which forms annual travelling exhibition. The exhibition hits the road up to Lerwick, and then crisscrosses the Country through Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Arbroath, and Sanquhar making it’ s way back to the AGM where the next 40 images are chosen. the Blue on Yellow: Alasdair Cochrane FRPS 14

WOMAN @COP26

Running to February 2023, Kris Kesiak’s exhibition is a collection of portraits that perfectly frame the voices of women to inspire the next generation of girls.

This legacy project spearheaded by Glasgow’s Education Services in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University and Women of the World Foundation, was created in 2021 where 2,500 young women from Glasgow’s Secondary Schools came together at “#GirlsAtCOP26 – The Solutions are Feminist” at the Glasgow Caledonian University. A panel of experts including former Irish President Dr Mary Robinson, joined the girls to discuss the global issues around UN Sustainable Goal 5, alongside health, environment and gender as well as other challenges that can affect women and girls’ bodies.

Women at COP26 Exhibition, curated by Claire Stewart, photography lecturer at City of Glasgow College, features women from across the globe who joined the school girls, in discussing taking collective action to address the climate emergency from a female perspective.

Glasgow-based photographer Kris Kesiak who documented the events said: “Photographing strong women is something I have been drawn to since I first started taking photographs as a child. In those early years, my sister and grandmother – both formidable women – were often the subjects of my pictures. In my career, I have been lucky enough to work with a wide range of female artists, musicians, writers and models.

“Getting the opportunity to meet, listen to, and photograph such a diverse range of women was a privilege. All were truly inspiring and formidable. I am thrilled to exhibit at Skypark and extend the exhibition to a new audience in documenting the role women are playing in Glasgow and beyond”.