Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland

28 June – 2 November 2014

Mon-Sun, 10am-6pm 

Outside August: Mon-Sun, 10am-5pm

Free admission

Scottish National Gallery

Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland

28 June – 2 November 2014

This extensive exhibition, presented across three venues, celebrates the richness and diversity of contemporary art that has developed in Scotland over the last 25 years. Artists working in Scotland have achieved international acclaim and the vibrant art scene in this country continues to flourish. Over 30 artists will be represented, with significant works made at key moments in the last quarter-century shown alongside new pieces and installations.

At the National Gallery, Steven Campbell's On Form and Fiction and Martin Boyce's Our Love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours will be restaged. Also on show will be a room of canvases by Callum Innes, video works by Rosalind Nashashibi, an installation by Christine Borland, and sculptures and woodcuts by David Shrigley, while Karla Black will create a new sculptural piece.

At the Gallery of Modern Art there will be new installations by Claire Barclay, Ciara Phillips and Alex Dordoy as well as immersive large-scale works by Ross Sinclair, Graham Fagen, Torsten Lauschmann and Simon Starling. The continued vitality of painting and drawing will be seen in the work of Victoria Morton, Lucy McKenzie and Charles Avery. Douglas Gordon's celebrated 24 Hour Psycho will be among the video installations on show, as well as Smith/Stewart's Breathing Space and Roddy Buchanan's Sodastream.

At the Portrait Gallery, Luke Fowler's 2012 film The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott will be shown in Scotland for the first time.

Mon-Sun, 10am-6pm 

Outside August: Mon-Sun, 10am-5pm

Free admission

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

John Ruskin: Artist and Observer

4 July – 28 September 2014

John Ruskin (1819-1900) is renowned as the greatest British art critic of the 19th century and the champion of Turner, but his role as an artist remains relatively little known. He was however an outstanding draughtsman and watercolour painter, who took particular inspiration from the natural world and architectural subjects. 

This exhibition illustrates, with the finest examples, the range and quality of his drawn and painted work. Gothic palaces in Venice, wild and spectacular Scottish and Alpine landscapes and minutely-defined and brilliantly-coloured birds and plants are highlights of the show. The works on display come from the key UK and US collections (both public and private), and the exhibition is a prestigious collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. 

It is especially fitting that John Ruskin: Artist and Observer should be showcased in Edinburgh, as Ruskin came from a Scottish family, visited Scotland many times, and was a passionate advocate for the beauty of its landscapes and literary heritage. Key episodes in his public and private life took place here.

Fri-Wed, 10am-6pm 

Outside August: Mon-Sun, 10am-5pm

Thu, 10am-7pm

£8 (£6)

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

John Byrne: Sitting Ducks

14 June – 19 October 2014

John Byrne is one of Scotland’s most versatile and accomplished artists and writers. This exhibition explores and celebrates his highly innovative and richly varied portraiture. It includes drawings and paintings from across his career, depicting friends, family and famous sitters, such as Tilda Swinton and Billy Connolly. Byrne has also produced many insightful and witty self portraits, which form a strong element of the show – the first of his work to be mounted by the National Galleries of Scotland. 

Organised in partnership with Inverness Museum & Art Gallery - part of High Life Highland.

Fri-Wed, 10am-5pm (6pm during August)

Thu, 10am-7pm