The Society of Scottish Artist's Annual Exhibition

By Susan Mansfield, 10.11.2021

Having been forced to take their annual shows online in 2020, Scotland’s artist-led societies are back in force this year, taking turns to inhabit the magnificent ground floor galleries at the RSA. The Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) is the largest and most diverse of the societies with more than 150 artists represented here selected from some 1500 submissions.

It’s a kaleidoscope of a show, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, tapestry, installation and photography, plus a collection of films by international collective CutLog on the theme of ‘Essential Travel’. It makes for endless variety, so much so that one can feel adrift in it, searching for points of comparison.

The key, perhaps, is balance, as suggested by the centenary tribute to George Wyllie, who was SSA president 1986-89. The six works here include his models and sketches for his Glasgow Berlin Spire which was installed at the Reichstag, its central rod held in balance with a stone from Rannoch Moor, and the portable version he liked to carry with him on his travels.

The show has a double-whammy of graduate artists selected from the degree shows of 2020 and 2021, and their work stands out in scale and ambition. Ellen Mitchinson’s bold figurative paintings take pole position at either end of the long central gallery; Louise Black’s sculptures using stuffed tights and hair to evoke an intense physicality grab the attention at the top of the stairs. An installation of house-shaped wooden blocks by Francisco Llinas Casas and Paria Moazemi Goodarzi turns us towards environmental concerns (Where should the birds fly after the last sky?).

There is some superb drawing, including Gill Walton’s Life’s Breath, a mother and child whose breaths shimmer in silver leaf, Lauren Ferguson’s rope swing, Graeme Wilcox’s figure study and the monumental stone arch by Calum Wallis, created on multiple sheets of paper tacked to the wall.

Jenny Pope’s kinetic sculpture captures the nature of hesitation in movement and words: 'toe in water', 'havering', 'madey up excuses'. Louise Barrington weaves delicate abstracts in thread and beads. Printmakers Rachel Duckhouse and Bronwen Sleigh are masters of line and geometric form, and Luke Vinicom shows the artist confronting his muse (mews?) in the form of a huge black cat.

There is work about which we need more information in order to appreciate it — including Joan Smith’s project on skulls and Erin Thomson’s on musical scores — but there’s plenty to see and enjoy here, even if one struggles to get a handle on the whole.

The Society of Scottish Artist's Annual Exhibition runs until 23rd November.