The Grit and The Glamour

The Grit and The Glamour brings together new work from 21 contemporary makers and artists from all over Scotland for a selling exhibition in response to the title of the show. The exhibition is curated and designed by Bard founders Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens, and will run from 12th November to 28th January at Bard in Leith, Edinburgh.

“The Grit and The Glamour is about craft and Scotland, and craft in Scotland,” Stevens says. “Our debut exhibition at Bard is a celebration of the rough and the smooth. Today we are told that a friction-free existence is aspirational. We don’t agree. In our smooth world we need to feel things with our fingers and souls. Craft is a powerful, enlivening force. It is embodied knowledge, culture, skill and has an anthropological intrigue that is too often overlooked. As with life, it can be gritty and glamorous simultaneously.”

The exhibition is a comprehensive demonstration of the breadth and depth of contemporary craft made in Scotland. “Craft is not about taste; it is concerned with bigger ideas than trend or style,” Macdonald says. “We are keen to show the extent to which craft can please and provoke, inspire and enliven minds, eyes and hands, simultaneously. We are interested in the power and potential of craft to make us feel things, in an increasingly un-feeling world.”

Bard is based in Scotland’s oldest customs buildings (completed in 1812) down in the historic port of Leith. “Historically, Scottish goods were shipped to the world from Leith so it feels fitting to be continuing this tradition,” Stevens explains. “The exhibition design gives a nod to this, using reclaimed tea crates for the display. We wanted to present these works as valuable cultural objects in transit, rather than static artworks on white plinths.” The exhibition will be accompanied by a digital showcase of works on Bard’s website.

All works will be for sale at Bard and online at www.bard-scotland.com.

The Grit and The Glamour participants:

Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade, Glasgow
Marie Bruhat, Fair Isle
Marc Sweeney, Loch Lomond
Jack Brindley, Edinburgh
Tom Addy, Braemar
All About Willow, Isle of Eigg
Soorin Shin, Glasgow
Morven Mulgrew, Paisley
Juli Bolaños-Durman, Edinburgh
Alice Meikle and Emma Boyd-Madsen, Edinburgh
Chalk Plaster, Fife
James Rigler, Paisley
Laurence Veitch, Glasgow
Orkney Furniture Maker, Orkney
Cara Guthrie, Perthshire
Ceramics By Joshua Williams, Dumfries & Galloway
Frances Priest, Edinburgh
Louise Bennetts, Edinburgh
Oliver Spendley, Sutherland
Andrea Walsh, East Lothian
Jack Sheahan, Edinburgh

The Grit and The Glamour will open at Bard on 12th November and run until 28th January. All works are for sale, at Bard and online at www.bard-scotland.com.

For more information please contact Hugo directly:

Hugo Macdonald

hugo@bard-scotland.com

07876686766