Aberdeen Art Gallery

Ross Sinclair versus Sir Edwin Landseer
(13 January - 17 April)

Art installation celebrating Scottish identity, setting work by Ross Sinclair, one of Scotland's foremost contemporary visual artists, against Victorian artist Sir Edwin Landseer's painting, Flood in the Highlands (1860), part of the City Collections.

Supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council.

 

A Greater Tomorrow
(3 February - 28 April)

An exhibition honouring, 70 years on, the 19 Aberdonians who joined the International Brigade in 1937.

Supported by the T & G Scotland; exhibition launch attended by Jack Jones, former T & G General Secretary and International Brigader.

 

Some Distance From The Sun
(17 February - 14 April)

First public showing of Dalziel + Scullion's new film work of botanical studies, Some Distance From The Sun, together with a new suite of prints.

Commissioned by HBOS; created in partnership with Peacock Visual Arts; supported by Scottish Arts Council and the University of Dundee.

 

David Blyth: Knockturne
(17 February - 14 April)

Large scale installation combining sound and video, projection, taxidermy and military equipment, inspired by astronaut Valentina Tereshkova's return journey to Earth.

Commissioned by Deveron Arts; supported by Dewar Arts Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Henry Moore Foundation, the Scottish Arts Council, the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council, the Rural Challenge Fund and Glenfiddich.

 

Aberdeen Artists' Society 73^rd Annual Exhibition
(5 May - 2 June)

An 'open' exhibition of works by established and emerging artists working in a wide range of forms.

Supported by Shell UK Limited.

 

Ailsa McWilliam - Reaction: Mild to Severe
(5 May - 8 September)

Works exploring themes in Australian weather and wildlife, inspired by McWilliam's three-month stay there, the result of her winning the James McBey Travel Award.

Presented as part of Word 07, the University of Aberdeen Writers' Festival.

 

Extreme North - On Norwegian Design and Architecture
(16 May - 12 August)

Large-scale scenes illustrating the vital role played by innovative design in making the harsh environments of Norway habitable for human beings.

Presented by the Six Cities Design Festival; supported by Norsk Form & the Norwegian Design Council, the Scottish Executive and The Lighthouse, Scotland's Centre for Architecture, Design and the City.

 

Land of the Samurai - Aberdeen's Japanese Treasures
(16 June - 18 August)

Artworks and artefacts from Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums' Collections, and those belonging to the University of Aberdeen, that either originated in, or were inspired by, Japan and the Japanese aesthetic.

Supported by the City Growth Fund, Energising Aberdeen, and the Sasakawa Foundation.

 

Lise Safarti - La Vie Nouvelle
(1 September - 3 November)

Photography show exploring the complexity of adolescent identity in locales across the U.S., accompanied by slide show with music soundtrack.

A Magnum Photos Touring Exhibition.

 

David Beckham by Sam Taylor-Wood
(4 September - 3 November)

Scottish debut of the acclaimed film by Taylor-Wood, featuring the sleeping figure of Beckham, one of the nation's most iconic individuals.

Loaned by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

 

James McBey in Venice
(15 September - 5 January 2008)

Etchings made by McBey during his 1924 visit to Venice, now part of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums' Collections.

 

Woven
(21 September - 9 February 2008)

Superb examples of woven textiles and tapestries from the Collections, alongside tapestries created through a collaboration between Edinburgh-based Dovecot Studios and leading Scottish artists including Elizabeth Blackadder and Bill Littlejohn.

 

Anderson MacGee - "The Melancholy Thistle and Other Works"
(27 October -5 January)

Collaboration by Briony Anderson and Paul MacGee, using Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums' Collections as the starting point for a reinvestigation of the cultural significance of selected works.

 

A Comedy of Manners
(Throughout December 2007 January and February 2008)

This display of works on paper shows the sharp observation by artists of the 18th and 19th centuries of their fellow men and women. Witty scenes of the mores and manners of the fashionable, the bourgeois, the rich and the poor, in some works descends into the humorous nature of caricature.

 

Then and Now
(1 December 2007 to 1 February 2008)

Aberdeen Harbour, an oil painting of 1897 by David Farquharson, is contrasted with a present day photograph of the same scene, 110 years on.

 

Aberdeen Maritime Museum

The George Shepherd Pharmaceutical Collection
(27 January - 13 May)

Showcasing highlights from this collection, now owned by the City, which illustrate how the marriage of function and form in the accoutrements of the pharmacist's trade can produce items of great beauty.

 

Aberdeen White Star Line
(26 May - 26 August)

Paintings and other items from the City's Collections relating to the famous Aberdeen-built clipper, Thermopylae, on the 100^th anniversary of its sinking in 1907.

 

Energy: North Sea Portraits by Fionna Carlisle
(8 September - 2 December)

Portraits of some of the people working in the North Sea oil industry, from scientists and engineers to skilled labourers and health professionals.

Supported by Total E&P UK Ltd, the National Galleries of Scotland, and Arts & Business New Partners.

 

A Surgical Thread
(15 December 2007 to 16 March 2008)

Since 1743, long before the invention of anaesthetic, tens of thousands of patients have been operated upon at Aberdeen Infirmary. Our exhibition looks at some of this history such as bloodletting, knocking patients out with ether, "cutting for stone", examining the body with "scopes" and stitching with catgut. On display are objects which are normally only seen by theatre staff. They might make us nervous but in skilled hands they can be lifesaving.

 

Provost Skene's House

Romantic Dresses
(20 January - 17 March)

Dresses from the City's Collections that were worn on romantic occasions, including for weddings and dances.

 

Bernat Klein - Pioneering Textile Designer
(31 March - 4 August)

A selection of fashions from Klein's 1970s collections exemplifying the bold, abstract designs with which he is associated.

 

The Roaring 20s - Flapper Fashions
(18 August - 20 October)

A show charting the way that women's fashions in the 1920s reflected the decade's optimism and pursuit of glamour.

 

Party Season
(3 November - 12 January 2008)

Examples of alluring eveningwear created in the last two hundred years, drawn from the City's Collections.

 

The Local Word and Image - 500 Years of Printing in Scotland
(17 November - November 2008)

Tracing the history of printing and print production, including newspapers, in Aberdeen from 1622, with a related display examining printmaking as an artistic process.