At its heart the exhibition of new works by Nicola Atkinson, Beautiful Materials, asks How do we look at art and its materials and what are its boundaries?
Here in the exhibition the vessel is a container for ideas, and materials, but perhaps we too are also containers in some ways. Nicola puts the visitor front and center in an active role of questioning art, how we digest what is around us, how we take part and then, what does it all mean. Themes of containment, scale and transformation pervade every surface.
Some experience of the artwork can only be in person, in the Gallery, this is where the tactile scale of the hanging velvet and georgette artwork is truly present. The vessels have gone on a journey of material metamorphosis from painting on wood, to printing on beautiful fabrics.
The artist extends what is the exhibition proper, out through the window of the Linlithgow Burgh Halls Gallery Space onto the Bus Shelter on main street. You can experience the artwork further at the artists’ talk, in your home, by wearing it, by listening on your phone and in a book.
She has published a stunning pocket-sized book to accompany the exhibition which you can acquire at Far From the Madding Crowd bookshop, Linlithgow.
Supported by West Lothian Council
Linlithgow Burgh Halls, The Cross, Linlithgow, EH49 7AH
Open everyday 9am - 5pm
SIX ASSOCIATED EVENTS ARE FREE, booking eventbrite essential
Thank you : Alan Hawthorne, Basharat Khan, Barbara McCarren, Ben Fletcher, Bill Breckenridge, Camille Archer, Claire Atkinson, Harrison Reid, Jill Vedebrand, Ju Row Farr, Kim Noble, Lesley Brown, Lorna Cunningham, Lorna Swinney, Lynsey Moyes, Maeve Redmond, Marney Walker, Michael Wilson, Peter Allam, Rosemary Cunningham, Sally Pattle, Sarah Bissell-Hobbs, Seth Howe, Spencer Dent, Stevie Jackson, Stuart Kerr, Tom Hickmore & OuterSpaces for my studio space.