Galleries - August 2016

painterly path, O’Dell’s delicate studies of birds, flowers and still lifes (among them her young children’s shoes) like a visual diary of her day to day life on the island. Greenall’s landscape studies are full of intense luminosity and a very particular sense of place. Finally to Skye (and, if you have been to Lewis, it’s on your way back from the car ferry) to visit artist Diana Mackie ’s idyllic studio overlooking the Minch and its views of the distant Outer Hebrides – the sea – and landscapes of astonishing richness and drama all around providing her with the almost ready made themes of her powerful and expressive canvases. Mackie seems drawn to paint the Turner-esque turbulence of the elements on her doorstep – rushing burns crashing down into calm moonlit seas, the elusive effects of what she terms ‘Skye light’, the way the colour spectrum is broken up by sea spray and land mists. Nicholas Usherwood . . . AND CONNECTED Firstly, mention must be made of the extraordinarily interesting exhibition our Scottish correspondent, Bill Hare, has co- curated with Andrew Patrizio of the University of Edinburgh at the Dovecot Gallery . Wittily entitled ‘The Scottish Endarkenment: Art and Unreason 1945 to the present’, it provides a perceptive, well informed and wide ranging survey of the concerns and obsessions that have dominated the Scottish art scene since the end of WW2, helping establish its highly individualistic character within the international art market. Still in Edinburgh and right in the heart of that New Town concentration of galleries around Dundas Street, a new-ish space that has been giving the city something of a shock therapy treatment of late, is Arusha Gallery . The first of their two August shows is typical; entitled ‘Second Self’, it features two (non-Scottish, London-based) rising stars in the contemporary feminist-oriented, fine art photography world, Juno Calypso and Carolina Mizrahi. While studying at the London College of Communication in 2011, Calypso created a fictional character called ‘Joyce’, an alter ego whose staged self-portraits in rented bedrooms or hotel rooms allowed her to explore “the private underlife of a woman consumed by the absurd construct of femininity”. ‘Joyce’ comes to life again in this new show with eight works from her latest series ‘The Honeymoon Suite’ – exuberantly mocking the kind of kitsch the subject implies. Brazilian-born Mizrahi, with her ‘Avatar’ sequence, takes a rather different approach, using photography to focus on the way the fashion industry imposes its norms on women by exploring how the colour pink is so identified with all things feminine. Sharp stuff! Then, in the second half of the month, there is a book launch exhibition of the extraordinary sequence of drawings Kirsty Whiten has made for her new artist’s book ‘Wronger Rites’ which she sees “as a balm or spell for the modern miseries.” Meanwhile celebrating a Scottish icon and simultaneously the festive mood (Fringe by the Sea, 8 to 14 August) is Fidra Fine Art with an imaginative exhibition of works by artists inspired by the volcanic plug that sits a few miles off the North Berwick coast – Bass Rock.’Ya Bass! A Timeless Muse’ brings together a comprehensive line up of successful contemporary Scottish artists working today. Moving to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the husband and wife artist team Greenall O’Dell Studio (David Greenall and Ruth O’Dell) are thriving after settling there (from south of the Border) some 25 years ago – coincidentally in a place called South Dell! Their work pursues a highly individualistic and intensely from left D amián Ortega ‘Broken Sac’ The Fruitmarket Gallery Michael Lloyd ‘Corn Bowl’ The Scottish Gallery René Magritte ‘La reproduction interdite’ 1937 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam © Beeldrecht Amsterdam 2007 Carolina Mizrahi ‘Avatar 01’ Arusha Gallery AUGUST 2016 SCOTLAND GALLERIES 9