Frontiers

In the early 1980s many UK arts schools and art departments at universities had combined specialist departments in painting, sculpture and printmaking. This reflected both the changing language of contemporary art practices and the need to rationalise resources and develop a more quantifiable research culture within the arts. In Scotland, this took a little longer as the distinct identities and legacies of the four historic art schools in Scotland endured. Given this, and the rise of digital media in the visual arts, it is perhaps surprising that painting remains enduringly popular today and emerging artists continue to be drawn to the medium.

Co-curated by Robbie Bushe RSA and Flora La Thangue, Frontiers: Painting in Scotland Now explores why, in a world saturated with digital imagery, painting continues to flourish. It considers the ways in which artists are pushing the boundaries of painting and reveals the artform to be a vital connection between the traditions of the past and ambitions for the future of the visual arts in Scotland. Placing paintings by Royal Scottish Academicians alongside other established practitioners and emerging artists, the exhibition poses the question: what place remains for painting? Are there new frontiers for painting in Scotland?

What is perhaps more arguable is that painting is being considered a contemporary practice again and is being celebrated. Relevant, charged and distinctive, contemporary Scottish painting is introducing a new audience to the rebellious, experimental side of the medium. For the last 15 years, the RSA has selected the best of recent Scottish art graduates for its RSA New Contemporaries exhibitions, providing an opportunity for those at the start of their careers to show large-scale ambitious painting.

The exhibition includes artists such as Helen Flockhart RSA, Moyna Flannigan and Olivia Irvine who have developed distinctive and powerful figurative approaches over many years. There is also Paul Keir and Toby Paterson RSA (Elect) whose work reinterprets the act of painting. Catherine Ross, Catharine Davison and Laura Drever offer strong responses to the land and environment whilst artists like Rowan Paton and Sharon Quigley demonstrate how the qualities of paint allow for the sumptuous, improvised gesture, patination and colour. Stories are embodied in the painting, from subconscious meanderings to literary and political responses by artists such as Kirsty Whiten and Jack Dunnett.