Collection threads on a trip to London

We are already in May of 30^th anniversary year and the team is looking forward to GI openings next month with the installation of Liquid Land by Jasmine Togo-Brisby taking shape in Gallery 1 as I write this post. Exhibitions and public programme only form part of the work that we do, with collection care, acquisitions and research a significant element of the job. Myself and Martin McSheaffrey-Craig are responsible for the modern and contemporary art holdings (post 1945), a growing collection with recent acquisitions mentioned already in this blog. It is always a wonderful opportunity to see exhibitions, talks and events – even studio visits – to follow the work of artists represented in the collection, or those that have a relationship with our work here.

A recent last-minute holiday where I could do this at my leisure (technically on leave but definitely a busman’s holiday!) came about when I got a lovely invitation for an early preview and lunch to celebrate the opening of Donald Locke: Resistant Forms. This is a touring exhibition now at Camden Arts Centre, which is a comprehensive survey of Guyanese-British ceramicist, painter and sculptor Donald Locke (1930 – 2010). I couldn’t resist heading down to London for a few days, especially as Brenda Locke (Donald Locke's wife and manager of the Donald Locke Estate) would be there and it was an opportunity to meet her in person after so many messages and online calls over the last 8 years for both the early acquisitions and gift from the Donald Locke Estate of three works (part of the Art Fund New Collecting Award – a collecting project of Black Artists working in Scotland undertaken with the freelance curatorial duo Tiffany Boyle and Jessica Carden of Mother Tongue) and the more recent gift from the estate of the work Echo from the Middle Passage#4, 2004 which is currently on display in Domestic Bliss, Gallery 4.

Joining Brenda with other members of Donald’s family and curators and artists involved in the tour was a real privilege. It enabled me to see the show without the thrum of visitors at the later opening, but also catch fellow Scottish curator, creative producer and writer Susanna Beaumont who interviewed both Brenda Locke and Tiffany Boyle on a recent podcast about Donald Locke after she had seen his work in the GoMA show in 2022. This is well worth a listen here.

In Glasgow Life Museums’ collection we have two early student ceramic works by Locke from his time in Edinburgh (1959 – 1964), as well as the later ceramic work Echo from the Middle Passage #4 and a mixed media painting The Ballad of Monkey Mountain from the Songs for the Mighty Sparrow series in 1998. It was wonderful to see how our works fit into Locke’s broader practice, but also larger scale works I had only ever seen images of in publications or online. Beautifully curated to work across the gallery spaces in Camden Arts Centre, the show also has one of their small publications – File Note 160 on Donald Locke with a newly commissioned essay by Hattie Spires which I picked up for the GoMA Library along with the recently published monograph on Locke that accompanies the show.

The preview was also a celebration for the excellent exhibition by Ain Bailey called The Jamaica Project. I was very glad to have been able to catch that show and see how her visual and sonic works completely changed the space from my memory of seeing Jesse Darling in that space a couple of years back. The work was stunning with the joy in the room at the artist realising this work in Camden Arts Centre very evident.

I had a couple of days either side of the opening and my first stop after arriving was at The Photographer’s Gallery (TPG) to see the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026 as it dinked into my radar of shows to see because one of the nominated artists is Jane Evelyn Atwood. She is one of those artists in Glasgow Museums’ collection whose work I am drawn to for different shows including the current displays – Domestic Bliss and Still Glasgow. When I included her work from the Great Eastern Hotel series, for the exhibition Polygraphs in 2017, she came cover for a talk with Francis McKee who had originally commissioned the series for an exhibition on mental health at Kelvingrove in 1994. It was wonderful to see works from her Too Much Time / Trop de Peines series which I had only seen in publications and heard her speak about when she was here. It was good to see her work alongside that of Rene Matić, who I was fortunate enough to be part of a Contemporary Art Society visit to their studio in March 2025 and delighted that their work from CCA Berlin was nominated here.

At TPG also managed to catch We Others: Donna Gottschalk and Hélène Giannecchini an interesting show with beautiful photographs by Donna Gottschalk looking at LGBTQ+ friendships in New York and San Francisco from about the 1970’s onwards documenting early lesbian, trans and gay rights movements. The show reminded me of a chapter from An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures by Ann Cvetkovich that a friend sent me recently and relates to thinking about the collections and archives I have access to.

The following day started out at Frith Street Gallery to see the solo show Expectations by Daphne Wright, whose collection work Home Ornaments (2005) was included in the original iteration of Domestic Bliss in 2019. The show included gorgeous fragile sculptures of the everyday and huge thanks to Ali McGilp, Director at Frith Street Gallery for showing me works downstairs and updating me on Daphne’s work, as well as that of Fiona Tan (also in our collection).

After here I headed to Larkin Durey to see the small but perfectly formed show Massoud Hayoun: Paper Ships. Having never been to this space before it took me a little while to work out its location, but it was well worth it coming into the gallery where Hayoun’s beautiful paintings with personal histories, natural and built symbols and current political references filled the space. The show is closed now, but they have just opened a poignant drawing show by Habib Hajallie whose print A British Artist recently entered the collection as part of the 20/20 artist portfolio.

From Larkin Durey I headed over to TATE Britain to see the stunning show by Hurvin Anderson whose work I had first seen at IKON Gallery in Birmingham a few years ago. A major show with over 80 works, some showing the development of ideas over time and others just stand out ambitious paintings. The lushness of his use of paint and the intensity of colour in the space was inspiring. I spent quite a bit of time enjoying each work, thinking about painting as a medium, but also the politics, personal experiences and cultural references sometimes implicit and at other times obscured within the work.

My final wander of the day was over to the National Gallery as I couldn’t remember when I last had time to visit. It was overwhelming at times as such an incredible collection often is but moments of calm and joy in finding works by Rachel Ruysch (whose work can be found over at Kelvingrove) and a small work by Jacopo de’ Barbari – A Sparrowhawk (1510’s).

Before I headed back on the train to London at the end of the week I managed to head over to Whitechapel Gallery to see Veronica Ryan: Multiple Conversations an expansive show with sculptures, prints, drawings, installations and textile pieces.  To see the breadth of her work was a timely preamble to the upcoming show and artist talk at Mount Stuart on Bute later this month.

It was a busy, art filled break over 3 ½ days, but also there was time to have a swim in Harringay Lido in the spring sun and catch up with family and friends. Thanks to my brother for letting me crash on his sofa and the last-minute invite to the gala screening of California Schemin’. Thanks to my niece for the introduction to music by Rodiguez which was made for walking the streets in the sun. Thanks also (I think!) to Duncan Campbell for the book recommendation - The Unnamable (1953) by Samuel Beckett. Read on a train to London and while (in Duncan’s words) tough going, very interesting to think about in relation to the upcoming work with him for Gallery 1 (more later on that exciting project).