Sculptors get teeth into new studio

By Pauline McLean
Arts correspondent, BBC Scotland

Good teeth is a large-scale sculptural installation created by Beagles & Ramsay during their three-month residency at GSS.

It may just be one small cluster of artist studios but since its foundation in the Dennistoun area of Glasgow in 1988, the various artists in the Glasgow Sculpture Studios have definitely made their mark.

From last year's Turner Prize nominee Nathan Coley to Claire Barclay, Lucy Skaer and Henry Coombes, who all flew the flag for Scotland at the Venice Biennale.

After periods in Maryhill and the city centre (in the Briggait) the organisation will this weekend officially take up residence in a brand new home in Kelvinhaugh Street in the Yorkhill area.

To mark the event, the group will unveil an exhibition by John Beagles and Graham Ramsay called Good Teeth - part of a three month residency at the new studios.

There'll also be a series of public events to mark the official opening and a series of public residencies throughout the year.

Beagles and Ramsay - who have been collaborating together in Glasgow since 1996 - have used industrial quantities of gold glitter to create their two monumental works and their first ever neon sculpture.

The new premises unite space for 45 artists under one roof

"The sculptural dimension of our work has come to the fore over the past few years and we saw this as the perfect chance to push things on to another level in terms of both conceptual and technical complexity," they said.

"We always make new work for exhibitions and this has been an important opportunity to work with a new set of materials on a bolder scale."

Other artists with studios in the complex include David Shrigley, Claire Barclay, Smith and Stewart, Nathan Coley, Tatham and O'Sullivan, Lucy Skaer, Alex Frost and Stephen Hurrell.

The move was forced by the redevelopment of the Briggait - work began on the multi-million pound project in the summer.

The artists decided instead to find a new space which would allow them to expand their studios and add better production and research facilities.

Familiar ones

The new building has various workshops - for wood, metal, stone and ceramic work.

"Glasgow Sculpture Studios is a unique centre for research, production, presentation and the dissemination of contemporary sculptural practices," said director David Watt.

"The new premises unite under one roof space over 45 artist's studios situated immediately alongside woodwork, metalwork, stone and ceramics workshops and construction spaces for large scale sculptures."

Work is already going apace. David Shrigley produced work for his solo show at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead here; Claire Barclay made new work for Frieze; and Nathan Coley has been working on his contribution to a new show in New York.

There are plenty of new faces, but plenty of familiar ones.

The first Research Residency has been awarded to the artist collective AHM, better known as (Sam) Ainsley, (David) Harding and (Sandy) Moffat - former heads of Fine Art, Environmental Art and Painting at Glasgow School of Art, and between them, a heady influence on many of today's artists.