This April at Inverness Creative Academy, we are looking forward to hosting a group exhibition of works by our resident artists that have stayed at The Admiral’s House in Skye and The Booth in Shetland over the past three years.
With around 20 artists participating, viewers can expect to see a variety of practices on display in the Assembly Hall at Inverness Creative Academy. The exhibition will open with an event on Friday 4 April (6pm-8pm) and all are welcome.
Liv Tsim’s Living Syntax explores how materials shape ecosystems beyond the human era. Joining this Non-Solo are three Guests from HK: Lee, Monti, and Carrie.
In Living Syntax, Liv Tsim explores the materials of our environment as active participants in the evolution of ecosystems. Looking beyond the human era, she examines how minerals, biological entities and artificial substances interact – merging, transforming and shaping the world in ways we rarely notice. By exploring their physical relationships, cultural meanings and chemical processes, she uncovers the hidden structures within materials, offering new insights into our ecosystems.
Human language cannot communicate with all species, but materials speak through their changes. Many life forms and natural elements exist quietly, evolving without recognition – each deserving care, attention and deeper discussion. Through experimentation, data analysis and shifts in perspective, Liv brings these overlooked materials into focus, giving them a new significance in today’s environmental narratives.
She is joined by three guest artists from Hong Kong, each offering a unique perspective on materiality and transformation:
- Lee Suet Ying (Bio-plastic Sculpture) – Crafting sculptures from organic and edible materials, Lee’s ever-changing works embody the fragility, decay and renewal of life.
- Monti Lai (Soil-driven Art Installation) – Blending agriculture and art, Monti traces the journey of Choy Sum across cultures, celebrating soil, growth and the deep connection between land and identity.
- Carrie Shen (Text Installation & Performance Art) – Through poetic text and performance, Carrie captures the voices of her community, weaving delicate yet profound narratives.
Together, these artists reimagine how we engage with the materials that shape our world – inviting us to listen, reflect and rediscover the silent stories of the earth.
Liv Tsim is an interdisciplinary artist, bio-material designer, and researcher based in Hong Kong and London. She is currently a Visiting Researcher at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, a collaborative research initiative between Newcastle University and Northumbria University. She graduated with Distinction from the MA Biodesign program at Central Saint Martins in 2023 and BA Visual Arts at Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University. Tsim’s research and practice explore bio-materiality, ecological justice, technology and speculative futures through mixed-media installations and video. The intricate climate crisis necessitates targeted and comprehensive speculation. She actively collaborates with scientists and communities to foster interdisciplinary dialogue,accumulate specific observations, advocate for speculative visions, and create an inclusive culture. Tsim was awarded the CreateSmart Young Design Talent Special Award from the HKYDTA in 2023, granted the MediaArt Scholarship from the Department of Cultural Affairs in Salzburg, and nominated for the Green Trail Awards LVMH Maison/0 CSM in 2023. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally, including the “Post-Human Narratives” series (Cattle Depot Artist Village and Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences, Hong Kong, 2020-2022), “Living with the Living” (Hypha Studio, London, 2024), “#CreateCOP Exhibition” (Fotografiska Shanghai Center, China, 2024), The Art Central (Hong Kong, 2024), and “Tokens of Remembrance” (Galleria Myymälä2, Helsinki, 2024).
Monti Lai is a Hong Kong-based environmental artist and farmer whose practice fuses art, ecology and agriculture. With an MFA in Environmental Art from Aalto University, she explores land, community and creative intervention through site-specific installations and participatory projects. From 2014 to 2019, she was deeply involved in the Sustainable Lai Chi Wo Programme, transforming everyday farming into artistic expression. She co-organised Touching the Earth, a workshop promoting tactile connections with the land. Her project Rice in the City (2017-2018) brought rice farming to urban Hong Kong, playfully subverting public spaces while sparking dialogue about land use and food systems. Lai has participated in rural art initiatives, including the Fishpond Sustainable Art Festival (2018) and Arts in the City (2024). She founded the Farmside Art Research Lab, redefining environmental art as an active dialogue between people and their surroundings.
Lee Suet Ying is a Hong Kong-based visual artist whose practice is rooted in sculpture and expanded into interdisciplinary installations. Holding a Master of Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University and a BA (Fine Art) with Distinction from RMIT University, her work explores themes of memory, materiality, and spatial narratives. She has exhibited internationally, with solo presentations such as Dreaming About Ham Sandwich After The End of The World (2023) and participation in global projects, including Marks of Remembrance (UK) and Tokens of Remembrance (Finland). Her contributions to collaborative and site-specific works highlight her sensitivity to historical and social contexts. Alongside her artistic practice, she is an educator, lecturing at Hong Kong Art School and Hong Kong Design Institute. Lee’s works are held in private and institutional collections in Spain, Portugal, and Argentina.
Carrie Shen is a Hong Kong-born artist, writer, and director based in Bristol. With a background in psychology and journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, she initially pursued a Master’s in Expressive Arts Therapy before fully dedicating herself to the arts. Her performance and video works have been showcased at Tate Modern and exhibited in galleries and cultural spaces across the UK, and Hong Kong. Her literary works have appeared in Fleurs des Lettres, Bit Zi, and Resonate. Since 2022, she has expanded into filmmaking, crafting narrative and documentary shorts. Her debut documentary Short Story Long was selected for the UK Hong Kong Film Festival 2023, while her narrative short White White screened at the 2024 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. She continues to explore themes of identity, memory, and displacement through multidisciplinary storytelling, with her works presented internationally in exhibitions and film festivals.
A group exhibition by five UK-based artists, showcasing diverse approaches to depicting landscape, memory and place, inspired by travels to Cyprus and beyond.
The starting point for the exhibition was a shared experience at the Cyprus College of Art in Lempa, Paphos, where fellow artists Anuschka Barlas, Grace Crabtree, Rosina Godwin and Hannah Wroe met while on residency. Located in the hills near the ruins of an ancient Neolithic settlement and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, the college, its beautiful surroundings, and the valuable connections forged during this period had a lasting impact. Together with Lezanne Scott, whose work shares similar themes, the artists have produced a series of works exploring approaches to landscape and place, with impressions from Cyprus weaving a connective thread.
Places become embedded with the emotion we associate with particular events, and to revisit the memory of a place is to recover those emotions. As writer Rebecca Solnit eloquently puts it:
“… place, which is always spoken of as though it only counts when you’re present, possesses you in its absence, takes on another life as a sense of place, a summoning in the imagination with all the atmospheric effect and association of a powerful emotion. The places inside us matter as much as the ones outside.”
All of the participating artists have thought about their relationship to place and landscape – both physical and psychic – in different ways, creating works that exist in the hinterland between experience and memory: the gap between recollections and imaginings of places, and how they are. The diversity of media used, including drawing, collage, egg tempera, handwoven tapestry, knitting and watercolours underlines the significance of materiality as well as more conceptual concerns when echoing the authentic distortion and hazy uncertainty that characterises remembered places.
Anuschka Barlas is a Scotland-based artist whose work engages with themes of memory, place and transience. Drawing variably with charcoal, graphite, ink, oil paint and watercolour on paper and weaving with natural and synthetic fibres on a handloom, her practice probes the foundations of traditional drawing and painting, and its relationship with other art forms. Studies from observation and/or film and photographs fuse with unpremeditated forms conjured spontaneously on the surface or warp into dreamlike landscapes and figures woven into and from their surroundings. Anuschka holds a BA (Hons) in Painting & Printmaking from the Glasgow School of Art (2022). Recent exhibitions include the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) Open at Bankside Gallery, London (2024), They Had Four Years at Generator Projects, Dundee (2023), and Human Perspectives at Cambridge University (2021). Anuschka has attended residencies at the Cyprus College of Art in Paphos in 2022 and 2024. As well as exhibiting in the UK and internationally, she teaches regularly and is co-founder and tutor at The Paper Stage, an artist-run platform celebrating figurative drawing and painting, through life drawing classes, workshops and exhibitions.
Grace Crabtree is an artist based in Bridport, West Dorset. Her paintings, often using the ancient techniques of egg tempera and fresco, are grounded in the experience of walking or swimming through a place – drawing in particular from the coastal terrains of Dorset and Cyprus – and unearthing their folkloric, geological, and mythic narratives. Since graduating from the Ruskin School of Art in 2019, Grace has exhibited across the UK. Her debut solo show, Elemental Drift, was held at Bridport Arts Centre in 2024 following an Arts Council England DYCP grant for ‘The Art of Fresco’, a studio and research project (2022-23). She has attended artist residencies in France, Portugal, and Cyprus, and is currently enrolled on the Turps Correspondence Course.
Rosina Godwin is a London based sculptor, whose artwork disrupts the nurturing associations of textiles to explore feminist issues. She has a Postgraduate Certificate in Art (Cyprus College of Art) and a MA in Fine Art (University of Reading), and has exhibited across the UK and Europe, given talks at conferences and run a variety of experimental knitting and textile workshops, including Darn for Yarn (Queen Elizabeth Stadium), Creature Dis-Comforts (Whitechapel Gallery) and Feminist Knitting (Greenbelt Festival).
Lezanne Scott is a self-taught artist from South Africa, now based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her work explores the connection between human experience and place. Using a variety of mediums, including watercolours, oils, and mixed media on paper and panels, Lezanne’s practice shifts fluidly between abstraction and observation, offering a way to express the intangible emotions and sensations tied to memory and landscape. Her background as an occupational therapist and coach has shaped her ability to observe and respond to human fragility and resilience. Through her art, Lezanne continues to examine the boundaries between the seen and the felt, creating work that is both deeply personal and open to interpretation. She attended the Château d’Orquevaux Artists & Writers Residency in France in 2023, and recently exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) Open at the Bankside Gallery, London (2025).
Hannah Wroe is an artist-researcher based in London. She grew up between Manchester, Essex and Cyprus. Her work examines the intersections of plant histories, spirituality, feminisms and silences. She studied Illustration at Camberwell College of Art and Art and Politics at Goldsmiths University of London. She has a growing interest in vexillology, exploring the types of authority and power often communicated through flags and banners and how we might re-examine their use.
Votive Gallery are delighted to kick off a fantastic year of exhibition programming with I Licked It So It’s Mine! at Wasps Patriothall.
This delectable show is made up of an ensemble cast of young artists from across the UK working with humour and irreverent materials. Through moving image, drawing, sculpture and unconventional painting, the artists push outlandish concepts to their limits and watch them collapse.
A whimsical energy can be found throughout the show. Evelyn Cromwell’s deconstructed sandwich chair bypasses divisions between design and art, drawing parallels between processed food and flat-pack furniture. Oscar Robinson indulges napkin mathematics in a hand-drawn pitch for a house made entirely from DVDs. Backed by a cheesy soundtrack, the speculative structure embraces its own ridiculousness with a strangely moving earnestness. There is an awareness and subversion of the gestalt in the use of these everyday materials – common objects riff on their recognisability. As the visitors look and look again, interpretations stick out like tongues. This mischievous spirit is at the heart of all the works in I Licked it So it’s Mine!
A line of thinking throughout the show comments on fan culture and pop consumption. Esther Gamsu’s sculptures litter the floor, like a dancehall where everyone has shuffled out of their shoes. At once comical and ghostly, they pose mid-movement as if rudely interrupted. The animations of Isabella Clark follow looping love letters to Al Pacino, leading us on a journey through obsession. Maria Wrang-Rasmussen’s edible paintings take ideas of consumption even more literally, tempting and taunting the visitor to indulge in iconophagy. Works like these toy with our desire to participate personally in the pop culture we love, even as it eludes us.
Sarcasm and irony sit beside genuine glimmers of excitement and frivolity. I Licked it So it’s Mine! poses the question: why is humour in art not nearly as revered as seriousness? Votive Gallery has decided to make their first show of 2025 a celebration of young artists seeking to find the fun in contemporary culture and turn the absurdity of everyday life back on itself.
It all began with an idea by Mary Walters, an Edinburgh-based artist who has recently been fortunate enough to spend time in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. With a background in geography and geomorphology, she works now mainly in print-making, and is increasingly inspired by the ice of northern realms. During her time in Svalbard, she met fellow artists Elizabeth Bourne (a painter and photographer who had moved from the US to live in Longyearbyen), and Adam Sébire (an Australian artist/film-maker who was marooned in the Norwegian Arctic for 18 months during Covid-19 and now lives there). As both Elizabeth and Adam make work about the same issues facing the Earth’s frozen polar regions, Mary invited them to exhibit with her, and together they produced Glacial Narratives: A Report from the Arctic for the Taigh Chearsabhagh galleries, North Uist, Scotland for COP26 in November 2021. With continuing support and input from Edinburgh University Professor of Glaciology Peter Nienow, they re-curated and developed the exhibition as Glacial Narratives: Cracks in the Ice for Edinburgh’s Science Festival 2023.
Mary, Elizabeth and Adam have each had individual experiences of the Arctic ice of Greenland:
Mary was artist-in-residence at the Ilulissat Art Gallery with the Arctic Culture Lab in June 2023, and also visited the Uummannaq Polar Institute during that trip. She was inspired by the magnificence of icebergs in Disko Bay, the varying extent, forms, and shapes of sea ice around Ilulissat and Uummannaq, and the intricacies, colours and sounds of the Eqi glacier. With materials chosen for their light weight, her works present both immediate and remembered responses to her visit.
Elizabeth’s first trip to Greenland inspired a life-long love of the Arctic. Later visits to this extraordinary land deepened her feelings and strengthened her commitment to raising awareness of climate change through her art. The impact of these visits is currently captured in her works in cyanotype, both large and small-scale, as well as in her paintings.
Adam’s Greenland-inspired works are filmed during multi-month residencies in Upernavik and Uummannaq: small indigenous communities through whom he witnessed the impact of rapidly increasing temperatures and declining sea ice. Both of necessity and aesthetic choice, he uses the elevated vantage point afforded by aerial cameras to suggest non-human perspectives on this changing environment.
“We are visual artists and researchers, who have each spent considerable time in Arctic environments. Individually and collaboratively, we have developed a complementary series of works that not only raise awareness of the wonder of ice as a material, but also ask questions about its disappearance. We do not claim to have answers, but we know that we have a responsibility to future generations to question our actions, and to contribute to the climate debates in any ways that our art forms allow.”
Mary Walters is a Scottish visual artist based in her home city of Edinburgh, and the producer of the series of exhibitions. Her current work is inspired by her research periods spent in Svalbard and Greenland, where she has become fascinated by ice as a material. Its many qualities have inspired her work with installation, projected images, print-making and laser- engraving.
Elizabeth Bourne is an American painter and photographer currently living on Svalbard. She has a passion for the Arctic, and her art focuses on that icy environment and the effects of climate change, The impact of her visits to Greenland are captured in her works in cyanotype, both large and small-scale, as well as in her paintings.
Visual artist, experienced filmmaker, freelance cameraman, drone pilot, video editor & stills photographer, Adam Sébire lives in the European Arctic (Norway) but works on films from Australia and the Pacific to Greenland, in between producing multi-screen video artworks. .His emphasis is on environmental themes, but with an artistic focus, specialising in creative approaches to documentary video production.
Connecting Through Creativity is a group show celebrating artwork created by individuals attending various groups at Creative Catalyst.
The common theme across our groups is the connections made by those attending workshops and the experience of being immersed in the creative process of making and doing. These connections can be practical and tangible like learning new creative skills and techniques, as well as sociable and wider-reaching transferable skills supporting individuals beyond visual outcomes.
Young people (16-25) are at the heart of Creative Catalyst, but the creative journey spans all ages. We offer groups for children, teens, and adults to enable everyone to engage with their creativity and potential. This exhibition is an opportunity to showcase and celebrate the artwork of all these brilliant groups including:
- Young People Core Group (16-24)
- Secondary Age Digital Art Club
- Adult Learning Creative Connections
- Primary Age Saturday Art Club
- Young People Alumni
Creative Catalyst is a social enterprise which uses creativity to connect individuals with their skills, wellbeing and next steps. We have a studio at Perth Creative Exchange, and over the past five years we’ve built a core programme of bespoke workshops run by a team of freelance artists and makers who share skills and opportunities which support and inspire children, young people and adults.
Beyond the Frame brings together the compelling works of Martin Irish and Mairi Macaulay. The exhibition showcases their different approaches to portraying the landscape.
Despite the different mediums they use—abstract painting and photography—both artists share a profound passion for nature. This passion is the thread that weaves their works together, creating a harmonious dialogue between their diverse yet complementary approaches to portraying the landscape.
Martin’s paintings delve into the emotional and atmospheric qualities of natural landscapes. His use of colour, dynamic brushstrokes, and layered textures invites viewers to experience the essence of nature rather than its literal representation. Martin’s work often evokes the ephemeral beauty of natural phenomena such as the shifting light of dawn or the turbulent energy of a storm. His abstract approach allows for a personal interpretation, making each piece a unique emotional journey for the viewer.
Mairi, on the other hand, captures the raw beauty of the natural world through her lens. Her photographs are a testament to her keen eye for detail and her ability to capture fleeting moments that reflect the soul of the landscape. Mairi’s work often features serene and untouched scenes, emphasizing the tranquillity and majesty of nature. Her photographs are not only visually striking but also imbued with a sense of reverence and respect for the environment.
Although Martin and Mairi employ different mediums, their works are united by shared themes and a deep emotional resonance. Both artists focus on capturing the mood and essence of the landscape, rather than a literal depiction. This approach allows them to convey the beauty, complexity, and transient nature of the natural world. Their works invite viewers to look beyond the surface and to connect with the deeper emotional and spiritual qualities of the landscapes they portray.
Martin Irish is an internationally acclaimed abstract artist based in the Highlands of Scotland. He creates vibrant yet moody paintings, captivating viewers with bold strokes and an unmistakable passionate energy. Imbued with lush abstract landscapes, his works are full of soul and emotion, spilling into the canvas as if created with an internal fire. Allowing colours and forms to pour out of him, he produces art which holds a mysterious beauty. His creations are wild and dynamic, resulting in a vivid explosion of emotions. His deep love for the beauty of nature and appreciation for the power of the elements shines through each layer, conveying an intense emotion in each artwork. With a strong focus on abstraction and the play of light and shadow, his captivating compositions unravel within the viewer, creating an immersive sense of awe. Martin Irish’s art is a unique experiment with the intersection between imagination and creativity, creating an alluring world of his own through his masterfully crafted pieces, constantly pushing boundaries and exploring the beauty of nature.
Mairi Macaulay is a Highland-based photographer whose work transcends the mere depiction of stunning scenery. With a particular passion for landscapes and seascapes, her images evoke a deep sense of place and atmosphere, drawing viewers into the very heart of the locations she captures. Mairi’s approach to photography is characterized by her preference for creating mood in her images. Rather than waiting for the perfect weather, she embraces the elements, finding beauty and inspiration in all conditions. Whether it’s the dramatic light of a stormy sky or the serene calm of a misty morning, Mairi’s ability to capture the essence of a location goes beyond simple representation. Each image is thoughtfully framed to convey a specific feeling or narrative. Through her lens, she invites the viewer to experience the beauty and ever-changing moods of the land and sea. Light plays a crucial role in Mairi’s photography. She has a keen eye for the interplay of light and landscape, capturing moments of fleeting beauty that might otherwise go unnoticed. Mairi is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and has been shortlisted several times in national and internation photography competitions.
An exhibition of drawings and paintings inspired by the poetry of António Ramos Rosa.
Saborear a lenta emanação
do limiar. Sorver a alteridade.
Abrir a luz com deslumbradas mãos.
Traçar a fugidia figura da origem.
Savour the slow emanation
of the threshold. Sip otherness.
Open the light with dazzled hands.
Trace the elusive figure of origin.
I discovered the work of António Ramos Rosa during a residency in Portugal last year, after seeing a notice commemorating the centenary of the poet’s birth. I was immediately inspired by the beauty of Ramos Rosa’s profound and philosophical words.
Ramos Rosa writes from the threshold (o limiar), a place of desire for a more vital experience of being, an alliance with the pulse of creation. His poetry expresses a deep kinship with the elements, with trees, flowers, insects even, but there is also sense of longing, an ache at the awareness of the thin line that separates us from the otherness of our primordial origins. The paintings and drawings in this exhibition are inspired by Ramos Rosa’s meditations on the nature of existence, and the potential of the creative act to cross the threshold.
Janice Deary was born in South Africa, and later moved to Europe to pursue her studies in Philosophy. More recently, Janice’s attention has turned to art, although her interests remain broadly philosophical. Janice completed her MFA at Dundee University in 2020 and has since held a number of exhibitions in Scotland.
PLEASE NOTE: The opening date for this exhibition is now Thursday 20 February.
The exhibition will showcase a diverse collection of figurative and portrait work, alongside plein air paintings that capture the vibrant essence of Scottish countryside.
This exhibition showcases a selection of figurative and portrait work created during my time as a student at the Glasgow Academy of Fine Art. Living near the breathtaking Loch Lomond has offered me endless inspiration, and I am excited to present plein air landscapes capturing the beauty of the surrounding area. Alongside these works, you will find studies after old masters, whose timeless techniques and insights have been crucial in shaping the way I paint today.
Painting from life is at the core of my practice. Unlike photography, which tends to flatten images and reduce the interplay of color and light into rigid patterns, life painting captures the dynamic and subtle relationships that bring the painting to life. The delicate nuances of flesh tones and the fleeting effects of light can only truly be observed and translated through the artist’s eye.
Over the next five years, Angel Mitov immersed himself in rigorous study, focusing exclusively on drawing and painting from life and copying the old masters. The leaning involved exploration of the human figure, still life compositions and landscape studies, all from observation.
Eerie and incomplete; Pictures and sculptures of running colours and bailing out the cellar. Curious Flat Pipes presents new sculptural works made from drawing, print and photography.
This research takes as its starting point, a desire to learn more about the powers that act upon an individual in urban environments. Why is touch such an important sense in industrial settings? By using the natural tendencies of ink and paper; saturation, repetition and repair become creative approaches to ask some related questions.
The exhibition title describes a recurring motif in the works: the ‘Lay-Flat Hose’ a heavy industry tool used in agriculture, construction, mining, and often associated with firefighting. These hoses are commonly used during floods to pump water from peoples homes. In Perth and Kinross and elsewhere in Scotland in 2023, seeing families pump out water and self-manage a recovery through these disasters became an influence in the development of this exhibition.
The imagery for these works shifts focus from details observed in Scottish cities, to much wider source material from film and international television news channels. This exhibition stages them in scenarios typical of the exterior world; like garden roofing or stacked grocery pallets.
Processes developed include D.I.Y poster-making techniques created by re-piloting a domestic inkjet printer so that the ink can be transferred by hand. As well as Chinese ink drawings and hurriedly assembled maquettes made with plastics. These spontaneous methods invite wider conversations about sustainability and liveability in cities as they elevate incomplete fragments from past projects including materials damaged during leaks.
A subtext in this exhibition is the prevalence of storms and floods around the world and the cultural response to these. The unequal distribution of resources and the environmental basis for such incidents should be a turning point this decade. With gratitude, these themes are explored comprehensively in Waters Rising an exhibition at Perth Museum which runs until 16 March 2025.
Leo Plumb is an artist based in Glasgow, his practice encompasses moving image, drawing and photography. Drawing on the economics of labour and urban environments, his imagery often shows places associated with recreation or work.
He studied at Glasgow School of Art, Leeds Metropolitan University and Estonian Academy of Arts and helped found Mexico Project Space, a curatorial group in Leeds from 2011-2014. This project responded to the the artists-led movement after the 2008 economic crash. He has presented collaborative works as Distance, Speed, Time with Celia Garcia, Julie Laing, Leila Smith and Sebastian Tay between 2015 – 2021. He has been an annual contributor and curator with Off Page a visual poetry project since 2022. The project will exhibit again at Many Studios in Glasgow in May 2025.
