Jean made microchips for 24 years by Janice McNab
PAIN I IN(-; JANICE MCNAB
doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sun 29 Jul 0000
Janice McNab’s photorealistic paintings are acute reminders of the insidious pollutants; that exrst in our domestic and work envrronments. One such group Is organoiIhosphates. lnnocuous in small quantities. they are devastating to the Immune system in large doses. rendering the hapless IndIVIdual allergic to the 20th century and ultimately feeling like a social pariah.
In each of McNab's incredible paintings Is a Victim of organoi)hosphate poisoning. Bettina suffers symptoms akin to Gulf War Syndrome. Mrs Smith Is intolerant of most food and hasn't left her house for twenty years. and there's the family whose health has deteriorated and their rural dream become a nightmare. All have entrusted their stories to McNab. who Incisiver conveys the emotional turmoil of the group's lives. Mrs Smith's open eyes are distressingly haunted. the chained door and the (leélll'~llll amplify the sense of Isolation and disability. The family painted sitting in semi-darkness are liVIng In the shadow of Illness.
Initially McNab photographs her subjects then paints from the actual photograph. retaining the elemental effects of the camera such as the flash and Wide-angle. This allows McNab to create an emotional empathy between the Viewer and these women. rather than creating a voyeuristic documentary of their
plight. (Isabella Weirl
INsIAIIAI IoN CATHY WILKES
Transmission, Glasgow, until Sat 28 Jul 0...
Glasgow based artist Cathy Wilkes' installation Our Misfortune Is a graceful Iiieditation on complex Ideas of family. artistic history and the Inexorable effects of time. For the exhibition. a corner section of Transmissions floor has been turned over, revealing the numerous drillings and sawrngs that fourteen years of exhibitions have Inflicted upon the hoards.
In this space Wilkes has arranged four dilapidated card tables. all splinters and precarious legs. She dresses them With pencilled texts. scraps of fabric made to look like a disembodied face. and delicate wooden sculptures made from pencil- thin lengths of wood. Accompanying this group of strangely animated tables is an ancient sun lounger. which trails a Picasso-influenced necktie like a tongue.
A group of four paintings hang around the peripher of the tables. white canvases traced With compass- pOInt circles and changing configurations of letters. Like Duchamp‘s Rotoreliefs. these paintings have a preCIse and mathematical grace.
Cathy Wilkes’s strangely animated tables
The exhibition is completed by the inclIISIon of a bold cubist-style painting by the artist father. George Wilkes. Her Influences Indicate a constancy of thought and affectIOn both for her own family but also for her artistic antecedents: these Influences are wrought into an exhibition of p0ised and deeply affecting beauty. iSarah Lowndesi
Art
l.ll/<ED MEDIA
GROUP SHOW 5. -' a. p. : : i: ... .. Modern Institute, Glasgow. until Fri v.3 3”}. ,. “A, : ._. , y, . ,__.~ (.v~ff,..3£‘r~;w~§:.~.. v~ :.;~\,.,.'v‘.n~_: tl‘. I ' . ‘ . i“ .t l‘l-l‘.’ I r ' I I ‘ iai°~‘ :':I‘ *r v:- M' l' i ‘ :' ..,. h i" l' “ l'llr' t ' ' i ' "‘I l * 1'. ' '2' t i'r (It"'l‘.:"..~'° ' l 'r ' ' iv 2“ : ‘R'i t .i ' " Scruffy but precise drawings by an: in w»... '. " i i 1“ Walter Dahn l‘l ;I ' :i . 2' :~ ' «i ' llil‘l'ltll ' l" " The Modern Institutes latest grout: estr‘iqzrz 't‘e-i .a‘. " e exhibition Is more of a presentation; ill I I ll i.' .If'rii: "stem. 1 T'Y'w o-i there's no sign of a grand curatoiiai TKILl" i' . "' it: 7 "i concept. As such. the snox'. is {lll.'.’l"r\fl J: k ".i ' l'l‘
PAlNTlN(3. PHINlS & oaAvxiNcs JOHN BELLANY
Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, until Thu 23 Aug .00
After a recent show at the Open Eye Galler III Edinburgh and a commission for Canongate's cover of the new edition of Sir Walter Scott's Two Stones. admirers of John Bellany ‘Nlll welcome the opportunity to see this collection of newly exhibited works. his first solo exhibition at Glasgow Print Studio for twenty years.
Predictable but not disappointing. the heart of the exhibition is a recurring obsession With the sea and all Its symbolic accoutrements. A series of six etchings. The Woman Of The North Sea is particularly enigmatic. George Bruce's accoiiiiIaiiyiiig pot-tr, eloquently articulates the lll(-3l21ll()ll()ll(,‘ expression of the ‘i.-.iaiting ‘.-ioiiiaii' portrayed. and connects her to the art historical canon in his reference to the 'unfathoiiiable look'.
Despite the timeless Stll)]()(jl matter. Bellany's figurative. expressi .ie style can at times feel dated. but this is an artist who has never followed fashion. (,()lll|ll() to the fore as he (lid when abstraction was all. Whate/er your tastes. the con exhibition Is undeniably weighty. and If any art can be categorised in terms of nationality. Bellany's work Is Identifiany Scottish. lSusannah lllfflllpT/Nli
Salome by John Bellany
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MIXED MEDIA NEW STREET ARTISTS
New Street Exhibition Space, Edinburgh, until Tue 24 Jul 0..
s the title suggests. artists who use the studios are showcased in this varied exhibition. And like most group shows. some are worth mentioning more than others.
Paul Baliingal's monochrome woodcuts are full of humour. Se/f Portrait is a series of comic-strip style facial expressions while on a more sombre note. Recreational Drinking typifies a group of lads pin a riigrit out. necking down pints of lager.
Rory Mitchell's figurative works have an air of iiielaiicliol,. lit The dour Infection of the (ire/ch lichf broch. an alabaster-wtiite figure holds a child close to the chest, The blue veins of blotchy pale skin are Visible. the red bleiiirjiies ii appiiig out the skin's Imperfections. Strong III narrative. Mitchell's use of my cold. lll',l[;l’l colours Suggest a troubled past.
Qtiite the reverse. Kirsty Whiten's paintings are highl, coloured. glossy portraits. Thick layers of varnish coat her photorealist oil painted studies. Taken froii: images of accumulated drawings and photographs. her figures appear self— conSCIous. as If awkwardly posing for the camera. Intensely radiant and extreriiel/ tactile. Whiten's competent use of medium and flair for portraiture. mark her out as one to watch. iHelen Monaghani
Kirsty Whiten’s glossy photorealist studies
"1 .1. .7: A x; THE LIST 85