Exhibition to celebrate Scots artist Calum Colvin

January 7, 2020 | Culture

A celebratory exhibition of the career of one of Scotland’s most innovative artists is opening this weekend.

Royal Scottish Academy will host Calum Colvin – Constructed Worlds, which has been timed to coincide with the publication of Tom Normand HRSA’s detailed new book exploring the artist’s work.

Calum Colvin RSA is internationally renowned as a artist who has challenged the boundaries of photographic media.

Born in Glasgow in 1961, Calum Colvin RSA has exhibited his work nationally and internationally for over 30 years since graduating from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1985.

In recognition of this achievement Tom Normand HRSA has completed a study of Colvin’s photography titled The Constructed Worlds of Calum Colvin: Symbol, Allegory, Myth. This book is a thematic exploration of Colvin’s photography; recognising its complexity, intrigue, erudition and humour.

In appreciation of this occasion the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture is pleased to present this exhibition of Calum Colvin’s art. In part a selected retrospective, in part a review of highlights from his oeuvre, this exhibition offers a survey of some of the finest photographs that Colvin has produced.

These works reflect upon the conditions of culture in Scotland, the tangled character of contemporary society, and the potential catastrophe that surrounds human ambitions.

One of Calum Colvin’s artistic creations

Critically-acclaimed for his complex constructed photographs, Colvin is known for creating three-dimensional stage sets involving household objects which are overpainted with subjects that relate to art history, popular culture, literature and mythology. Colvin’s constructed photographic artworks begin as large-scale studio ‘stage-sets’: tableaux of everyday objects, furniture and bric-a-brac carefully posed and theatrically lit.

Viewed from the fixed-point perspective of a large-format camera, painted trompe-l’oeil elements are introduced, integrating object and subject in a complex mise en scène. These are finally photographed on film, digitized and printed onto paper or canvas. These visual illusions and allegories are intended to draw the viewer into a creative dialogue as the images are interpreted, touching on contemporary concerns relating to society, the environment and aspects of national identity.

As Tom Normand says: ‘Colvin’s constructed worlds, realised as effervescent photographs, explore the precarious nature of our world: mixing pathos with humour, intelligence with passion, and exposition with revelation. These are photographs that captivate, entertain and fascinate in equal measure.’

Normand’s fully colour-illustrated book, The Constructed Worlds of Calum Colvin, Symbol, Allegory, Myth (Luath, 2019), will be available to purchase during the exhibition.

Calum Colvin – Constructed Worlds will run from 11 January – 2 February 2020 with free entry. Find out more HERE.

A Discussion of Constructed Worlds will take place on 16 January, at 6pm, with a gallery tour with Calum Colvin running on 22 January, 6.30pm. Find out more about these events HERE.