The Gray’s School of Art Degree Show will run from 21 to 28 June featuring work from this year’s talented graduates on the theme of ‘Open Your Eyes’. See fashion design, painting, photographic and electronic media, printmaking, product design, sculpture, visual communication and more. Works will also be available for purchase.

The Gray’s School of Art Fashion Show will take place on the 21 and 22 June. Find more information here and get your tickets here.

For a sneak peek see some of the photos from the degree show build here or watch the teaser trailer below:

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Please visit here for more Degree Show reviews on Central Station.

Hullo, my name is Alex Holroyd. Based in Aberdeen, Scotland, I’m a photographer and a co-conspirator in the affairs of Offset 57, a local creative collective. I have a fondness for houseplants, a big love for music and I’m rarely seen without facial hair. You can find my photography here. This is a wee tour of some of the creative scene of Aberdeen.

Aberdeen is a funny place. I wasn’t born here, but grew up here in one of its suburbs. It’s a place that’s known primarily for its striking granite buildings and its oil wealth. It’s also a place that many have found easy to bemoan, myself included, but after a time away, I’m beginning to find more to it than I previously appreciated. It is pretty corporate on the one hand as a result of it being the energy capital of Europe, but there’s also a crowd of creative folks making things of all types and existing outside the mainstream, both old and young. This is the side of Aberdeen that I feel most at home in. I’ll take you through a few of my favourite things:

The Belmont Filmhouse (formerly of the Picturehouses chain) is Aberdeen’s local indie cinema, and is the go-to place to see quality, interesting films. Its recent change to being part of the Filmhouse family is thankfully expected to increase the variety of foreign and independent film on offer. They often put on special screenings of films you may not have seen on the big screen before; a place where you can watch Predator or Home Alone with a beer is a good’un in my book. Downstairs you have The Bar Below, host to the E.A.R.L. (of sandwich) guys, who make one of the best chilli bowls in the ‘deen. You’ll often find artwork down here too, and it’s just a nice place to kick back before or after a film. A game of scrabble here never goes amiss.

Further down the street from the Belmont, you’ll find a wee bar called The Tippling House. Head down the stairs and you’ll find yourself in Aberdeen’s best cocktail bar (in my opinion anyway). Headed up by Adrian Gomes, the bar has won a stack of awards for its food, its cocktails, and its staff’s skills. The food is taken care of by Eat Beetroot, culinary mavericks in their own right. The Tippling house’s style has been much emulated, but not bested. My personal recommendation has to be one of their white Russians. As we’d say here, affa fine.

Mike and Katie’s mirror mural for Flagship 57 #1

Prints from local artists up on the wall at Brewdog Aberdeen as part of Flagship 57 #1

Another bar to mention is BrewDog. The brand probably doesn’t need much of an introduction, but the Aberdeen bar is its Flagship. BrewDog is famous for its unconventional approach to beer and business, and the Aberdeen bar has been a welcome home for creatives. Most recently, they’ve teamed up with a local creative collective that I’m involved with called Offset 57 to launch Flagship 57. This is a monthly event involving live illustration, live music, a pop-up stall with work from local creatives, and prints for sale by students and former graduates of the city’s art school and college that remain in the bar over the course of the month. They’ve also got a sister venue called Musa near Union Square, a restaurant, gallery space and live music venue. The Monday open mic night hosted by Pete is a good mellow way to enjoy an evening, with a decent lineup of regulars, some good, some odd…

We’re lucky enough to have a few collectives making work here. Local favourites are a duo that go by the name of WLDWLVS. Neil and Stu are a pair of designers and illustrators and all round rad dudes who have carved a pretty big following for their work, and rightly so. Their tees, hoodies and beanies have featured some really nice designs, with collaborations with local artists like Stu Allan and others further afield like Glasgow based Conzo Throb. They’ve also partnered with BrewDog recently for their Glasgow Beer Geek Brunch event, and started the #seeninthedeen stream that many folk now contribute to on twitter and instagram.

Real Nice Collective and more specifically, the Hell Yeah crew have recently reared their heads. Katie, Mike, Lee and Neil are freelance illustrators who collaborate on illustration installations and have worked with us at Offset 57 twice and put on some really impressive shows. Katie and Mike recently killed it on the mirror illustrations at BrewDog at the Flagship 57 event. Really looking forward to seeing what they’re going to do next.

Back to Belmont street we go to visit 17, the not so new home of the Arts and Culture side of the Council support but fairly new home of Make Aberdeen, a digital fabrication studio delivered by Peacock Visual Arts. Armed with all sorts of machinery including laser cutters, CNC routers and a fleet of macs, creative possibilities here abound (like engraving Brian Blessed punching a bear onto the back of your phone). 17 had a super shaky start but is beginning to realise its place in the cultural map of the city. They’re currently playing host to the ‘In the shadow of the breast’ exhibition curated by the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. This is a Year of Natural Scotland project inspired by Bennachie, featuring film, a sound installation, paintings and prints. Here’s to 17 going from strength to strength.

Peacock Visual Arts remains a central connecting point for creatives in the city. They’re the leading contemporary arts organisation in Aberdeen; current exhibitions include Marc Wilson’s photography work ‘The Last Stand’, and the annual pre-degree show exhibition from local Gray’s School of Art printmaking students. Aside from exhibitions and events, PVA are also home of screen printing studios that artists can use as well as facilities for lithography, etching, a darkroom, and more. Over the years they’ve hosted both big name artists and provided a platform for local artists to showcase their work. They unfortunately lost out in the Union Terrace Gardens debacle, but I’ll not get into that otherwise I’ll get angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…

The music scene in Aberdeen is pretty varied. The yearly jazz festival is a big draw and pulls in several music venues around the city, including jazz scene staple The Blue Lamp, a stone’s throw from BrewDog. The recently held Big Beach Ball  hosted acts as varied as Fatherson and Krystal Klear in the lineup alongside pop up shops and food market. Nice.

Right next door to The Blue Lamp, you’ll find the Candle Close Gallery, housed in part of Soapy Ogston’s Victorian soap factory. You’ll find reclaimed fixtures from notable Aberdeen buildings as the old Frederick Street School and the Astoria Cinema House here alongside bespoke furniture, jewellery and gifts. I buy my nag champa from there.

Old image, you get the idea though.

One wee place that many don’t know about is a shop in the west end called Peltoniemi Concept Store. I’ve had the pleasure of working with owner Tytti on a few projects. Her shop showcases high end design and is always well curated, stocking items Tytti has hand picked from London, Paris, Milan and further afield. As she’s a Finn, there are of course a few Moomin related items in there too. Also a cracking interior designer, she’s responsible for the sophisticated design of the Adelphi Kitchen, a new restaurant in the Adelphi area of the city, off the main line of Union street.

Coffee wise, favourites are Contour Café on the green and Food Story on Thistle Street. Both of these places do events outside the normal realm of a coffeehouse. Contour has hosted clothes swap nights, and Food Story has hosted whiskey tasting evenings. Both also do excellent food.

Snow, skate and BMX shop Boarderline is always worth a visit. The staff are all pretty gnarly riders of their chosen board/wheels, and both Katie and Mike are also part of the Hell Yeah crew mentioned earlier. Skate culture has always been tied to the arts and visual side of things, so it’s no surprise that this place is pretty well connected to the indie scene in the ‘deen. They’ve played host to screenings of local skate films, the latest of which being ‘Ah Dinna Ken’, screened in local music venue The Lemon Tree.

Dunes at Balmedie

I haven’t even mentioned the Shire yet. Aberdeen is nicely situated not only on the coast (shame about Trump’s oafish installation), but right by an affa bonny bit of country. There are hills and green things aplenty the further west/north/northwest that you go, along with more creative potential too. Check out the Woodend Barn if you’re out Banchory way, and while you’re at it, hit the Birdhouse Cafe for a giant flat white (they mistakenly were given big cups instead of regular flat white ones, and so just make their flat whites bigger. What a shame.) The dunes at Newburgh are also worth a trek.

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See more of Alex’s work in this Central Station showcase.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where our members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

Illustrations by Aberdeen based artist, Cosmic Nuggets.

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

This week Aberdeen city centre will be dazzled by a spectacular array of light installations, exhibitions and events for all to enjoy.

Aberdeen City Centre will be illuminated by a trail of light works and projections – Reclaim The Night promenade, led by Aberdeen City Council’s Creative Learning Team, will bring a touch of technicolour to the City’s backstreets and alleyways and The Light Garden will see a thousand sparkling flowers planted in Union Terrace Gardens.

Peacock Visual Arts will also present new interior light works by one of the festival artists, Adam Barker-Mill, in just-noticeable differences Part 2 between 7 February and 22 March 2014. The exhibition will open on Thursday 6 February, 7 – 9pm.

SPECTRA, Aberdeen’s first ever Festival of Light, is set to dazzle the city with a spectacular array of light installations, exhibitions and events.

SPECTRA artists:
Adam Barker-Mill
Chris Bird
Jim Buckley
Jim Ewen
Torsten Lauschmann
Eilidh McCormick
Jitka Zabkova
Chevalvert
2Roqs
Polygraphic
Splank

For more information about The Light Garden, Reclaim The Night, light projections and installations, click here.

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WLDWLVS and Peacock Visual Arts bring you #SEENINTHEDEEN, a site featuring creative characters from Aberdeen and beyond.

They’re asking everyone to get involved in the project, just tag any image on Instagram or twitter with #SEENINTHEDEEN to have these images displayed on the website. They’re looking for images of street typography from around the city, from old shop signs to graffiti and everything else in-between.

The project includes a linked exhibition with WLDWLVS at Peacock Visual Arts from 22 November – 21 December 2013 displaying work from local artists such as: Stu Awesome, John Mackenzie, Paul Mullen, Cameron Fraser, Brian Ross among others. Their work will be shown alongside more established artists such as Adam Bridgland, Chu, Salvador Dali, Jeremy Deller, ESPO, Mike Giant, Seb Lester and many more.

The exhibition will also include a specially commissioned projection of examples of kinetic typography.

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Tell us about yourself.

Since my teenage years my biggest passion was photography, combined with general interests in art, literature and history. I enrolled to study philosophy at University of Lodz in Poland however I quickly found out that it wasn’t this that I was looking for. In 2005 I came to London and after moving from place to place in and around the Big Smoke and having various – less or more interesting jobs I decided to move to Edinburgh. Not long after that I enrolled at Stevenson College to study Professional Photography, which I finished in 2012 with a degree in Bachelor of Arts. In September 2012 I moved to Aberdeen where I am continuing work on my portraiture and landscapes projects.

In “The Neighbours” project, I am trying to create a portrait of contemporary and multicultural Scottish society and investigating its links with the rest of the world. To highlight that migration, and multicultural societies are not a new occurrence, I am researching on communities and individuals who came to Scotland many years ago. But of course the main part of this project is about more recent changes. In the last ten years many people from new EU countries like myself settled down here which resulted in Scotland being even more diverse and multicultural. The main idea is included in the title – In today’s well connected world anyone regardless of nationality, cultural or religious background can be our neighbour.

“Sikh family” – Edinburgh, 2012 – The Neighbours

Where do you work?

For now, most of my work is done in Aberdeen and Edinburgh but the further stage of my project would require me to travel to different areas of Scotland.

When I am making portraits, I am always working in my sitters’ homes or places, which are related to their stories. I like that every person’s home has its own unique mood and story. I prefer to be out there that’s why I am very rarely working in the studio, but of course I have some ideas for studio-based projects as well. When it comes to landscapes, I am trying to combine my interest in places and scenes, which are aesthetically attractive to me with my interest in the history of the city, its inhabitants and their everyday activities.

“Jozefina” – Slovakia, 2013 – “Domov” – project recently shortlisted in The Jill Todd Photographic Award

Tell us about your process:

I choose to work in a genre of portraiture photography as this form gives me the possibility to meet a variety of different characters and listen to their stories, whilst observing them in their private domestic environment. I would describe my work as a formal environmental portraiture. My portraits are always a result of collaboration between the portrayed person and myself, however I always keep at a distance. I am the one who is recording their appearance and the story but in most cases I act more like a guide rather than a director. I am aware of the fact that photography – as any other medium – is very subjective but I want my sitters to be as truthful to themselves as possible. I want them to forget about the presence of the camera for a while. To achieve this I am always asking them to imagine that they are seeing a mirror instead of the camera. These mirrors are double-sided and I hope that the viewer looking at my portraits will be able to find himself in one of the pictures and translate the stories of my sitters to his own experiences. I think that these portraits also reflect who am I.

My landscapes are about juxtaposition, local history and mood of a particular place. My own perception of the place is also playing a very important role in the whole process of creating the photograph. I am often attracted by landscapes where mainly everything is designed by man or it is a result of mans’ activities as this can say a lot about the time and the conditions in which we were/are living.

“Polish- Russian family” – Aberdeen, 2013 – The Neighbours

What’s your typical day like?

This changes from time to time. When I am preparing for new projects, I tend to spend some time on looking for possible sitters, locations, funding sources and also on promoting ongoing projects that I am doing right now. But the research process is constant, as you never know what you may come across. When projects are in the implementation stage, I visit people or locations and take their portraits. I also work part-time in the evening so my photographic activities are from early morning until late afternoon. Very often I spend nights on the post production of the photographs from the past weeks. I try not to look at the new pictures immediately as I like to develop a sort of fresh view which allows me to look at them more objectively.

“Dr Kazimierz Durkacz” – Edinburgh, 2012 – The Neighbours

Where do you find inspiration?

This is a tricky question. If I knew where I could always find inspiration, I would not “waste” my time on looking everywhere I think I might find it!

It could be everything! From a short note in a local paper, word in the dictionary, book, story someone told me or most often by just walking around the city and being a bit nosey and curious about people and places.

What are your future plans?

At the moment I am taking part in “The Quality of everyday life” exhibition, which is on display in the Summerhall gallery until 22 November. I am showing some of my portraits from “The Neighbours” project there. Apart from continuing my work on this project, I am also working on a landscape series called “Gray City” and I am in the research stage for another portraiture project called “The Picts.” As my career progresses, I see myself working on collaborative projects with anthropologists and historians, combining social sciences with photographic art for the benefits of society. That’s my dream.

I would like to use this opportunity to encourage everyone who has foreign ancestors or those for whom Scotland is a new home to contact me, as I would love to hear your story and take a portrait of you or your family. I am looking forward to meeting you!

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Designer, Neil Henderson worked in collaboration with Stu Allan and Stu Ford for their exhibition WLD/WLVS Presents: STWO.

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Aberdeen by Glasgow based photographer Derrick Argent

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Discover more work by creatives we’ve featured, here.
If you have a Flickr, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Behance or Cargo account connect with us.

Who:
Craig Barrowman is a multimedia artist and curator based in Aberdeen. He is a founding member of collaborative art group Stray Dog and recently facilitated the ‘Art + Politics’ strand of Temporary Art School.

WLD/WLVS commissioned tee by Craig Barrowman

Why we like it:
Drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, performance and curating are all part of Barrowman’s creative practice. His website demonstrates his talents in a clear, visual way, enticing you to learn more about them.

Short Trip, 2006 by Craig Barrowman

Hidden treasure:
Short Trip was part of a group exhibition in 2006 where Barrowman took small groups of people out to an undisclosed location (Nigg Bay). He recorded their conversations in the car and played them through the car stereo to the following group of people. Notable praise goes to the brave participants, as well as the artist for this unique project.

Wishing Mountain, 2011

Where to find out more:
Website | Blog | Flickr

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Want to take a look at more suggested blogs by artists? Look here.