The RSA New Contemporaries 2015 exhibition, which opens in Edinburgh next week, will this year include a selection of work by 2014 graduates from Glasgow School of Art. The graduates were unable to produce a degree show due to last year’s fire at the school’s historic Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed building.
The annual showcase, selected from degree shows across Scotland, offers graduates the chance to exhibit a substantial body of work at the Royal Scottish Academy Galleries. Graduates from both fine art and architecture courses are included, selected for the exhibition by representatives of the RSA and of the five main colleges of art and six Scottish schools of architecture.
In total 72 artists and architects are exhibiting in this year’s show, with 15 artists each from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art, six from Gray’s School of Art and two from Moray School of Art. A full list of exhibiting artists and architects can be found at royalscottishacademy.org.
Works by Glasgow School of Art graduates were selected both from the exhibition of digital prints, held at McLellan Galleries in place of school’s degree show in June last year, and from works created as part of the Phoenix bursaries scheme, which enabled those affected to continue their creative studies at art schools in the UK and beyond.
Prizes and awards
Among the £40,000 of prizes on offer is a three-month residency at the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown, to be selected by a panel comprising artist Alison Watt, Glenfiddich’s Artist in Residency programme coordinator Andy Fairgrieve, James Knox of The Art Newspaper and critic Susan Mansfield.
The recipient of a £14,000 bursary and purchase award – sponsored by the Fleming-Wyfold Foundation which supports Scottish art and artists through exhibitions, education and publishing – will be selected by the artist Graham Fagan, Dundee V&A director Philip Long and art critic Laura Cumming.
The foundation will also offer selected artists the chance to exhibit in its New Scottish Artists exhibition at the London-based Fleming Collection later in the year.
RSA New Contemporaries 2015, 14 March – 8 April 2015, RSA Building, Edinburgh. royalscottishacademy.org
More on a-n.co.uk:
Brownlee Brothers win 2014 RSA New Contemporaries bursary
Coming soon: a-n’s annual Degree Shows Guide
