We decided to keep our walking group outing local this week as the World Cycling Championships meant that many of the city centre roads were blocked off and best avoided for the time being. This was not by any means a bad thing for our walking group though as it meant we got to see a number of interesting exhibitions some of us might otherwise have missed.
We started off with visits to the two Modern Institute galleries. First was the Osbourne Street gallery where there was an exhibition of paintings by Cathy Wilkes. These are very slight, quiet pieces; small and few in number, not taking up a lot of space on the walls. The gallery in Airds Lane offered paintings by Nicolas Party. These had a greater impact and as a group we found we could relate to them more easily and they conjured up more excitement and conversation.
Next was a short walk to the Briggait where the two small gallery spaces had works by Iona Kewney. The artist is also a dancer which comes across in some of her drawings and we were particularly impressed with her skillful renditions of hands.
We decided that rather than end our outing here, we would return to Trongate 103 and visit Glasgow Print Studios and Street Level Photoworks. GPS has a collection of colourful landscape inspired prints by Barbara Rae while Moira McIver’s photographs in SLP are an exploration of the history of migration between Donegal and Glasgow.
It was a good afternoon of walking and talking with lots of looking.
Text and photographs by Celine Mcilmunn
