Reid Gallery, Reid Building, The Glasgow School of Art, 164 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G3 6RQ
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  • 4 July – 8 August 2026 Sam Ainsley and Alex Dempster – What if it isn’t there… Garnethill Gallery This...

    Left – Sam Ainsley RSA, Tendrils Underground, acrylic paint, 20 x 20cm (2026). Courtesy of the artist
    Right – Alex Dempster, Blue Cap, acrylic on wood, 35.5 x 25.4cm (2025). Courtesy of the artist

    4 July – 8 August 2026

    Sam Ainsley and Alex Dempster – What if it isn’t there…
    Garnethill Gallery 

    This two-person exhibition presents shared interests in natural systems and the earth’s structures and rhythms. Sam Ainsley (D.Litt., R.S.A.) thinks of her work as a form of “emotional and intellectual mapping” that tries to uncover correspondences and relationships between natural, (biological, geographic, geological) phenomena, the human body and the human condition. For this exhibition, she will show a body of new work called ‘The Bed Drawings’, made during an enforced period of bed rest following a road accident earlier in the year. Glasgow-born Alex Dempster’s artistic practice is shaped by a lifelong fascination with nature, geology and the branching networks that appear across myriad forms in nature. From the delicate veins of leaves to the intricate patterns of river systems and geological fault lines, these interconnected structures embody the hidden order of the natural world. Dempster was a student on GSA’s Master of Fine Art course (he attended 1988-1990), whilst Ainsley was Head of the MFA. 

     

    Sam Ainsley has forged a remarkable career within the visual arts sector nationally and internationally. From 1985 to 1991 she taught on the Environmental Art programme when she then co-founded the MFA course. 

     

    Alex Dempster attended The Glasgow School of Art 1984 – 1988 (BA Hons.), then 1988 – 1990 (MFA).  Dempster worked as an Art & Design teacher from 1991- 93 becoming a Principal Teacher of Art and Design in 1993, teaching Art and Design and Photography until his retirement in 2022. 
  • 19 September - 31 October 2026 A new commission with artist Josie KO The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) presents...

    Josie KO, Fir gorma, 2024, Glasgow International, photographed by Eoin Carey

    19 September - 31 October 2026

    A new commission with artist Josie KO
     
    The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) presents a new commission with Glasgow-based artist Josie KO. KO was an RSA selected artist for New Contemporaries in 2023. She graduated from GSA in 2021.

    KO has been invited to respond to an archive of The Jardine Sisters, held by a descendant of the Jardine family. Bridget (1881-1964) and Aeta (1886-1969) Jardine studied at Glasgow School of Art in the early 1900s, going on to exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition between 1918 and 1929. The sisters grew up between Glasgow and Georgetown, Demerara (now Guyana), where their Glaswegian father Charles Kennedy Jardine was the founding owner of newspaper 'The Demerara Chronicle'. Through their father, the sisters were direct descendants of Scipio Kennedy, the formerly enslaved African who lived at Culzean Castle in Ayrshire c.1700 -1774.

    Purposely working with non-traditional methods and mediums (such as paper mâché, glitter and found objects), KO uses these materials’ relegated status in the art world and mixed media techniques to present a new reimagined depiction of the Black female body. The scale of her works makes them unavoidably noticeable, counteracting the erasure of Black women in art history and Black female artists.
     
  • About GSA Exhibitions

    'Early Eardley: selected works 1940-1950', Reid Gallery preview (2023), Photo: Alan McAteer 

    About GSA Exhibitions

    GSA Exhibitions curates an innovative, dynamic year-round public programme connected to research, teaching and learning, student experience, communities, contemporary practice and heritage of The Glasgow School of Art (GSA). This comprehensive programme also works with international and UK-based contemporary artists, designers and architects. Exhibitions and events take place in both GSA and external venues. Our programme is free admission. Previews are open to all.

     

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    Banner image: Josie KO, Lady in blue, RSA New Contemporaries, 2023, mixed media