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The Art World in Focus
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Andrew Cranston

ANDREW CRANSTON

Never a joiner Ingleby 17 June–16 September 2023 Edinburgh
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Press Release

This summer, as part of this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival, Ingleby presents an exhibition of new paintings by Glasgow based Andrew Cranston.

Andrew Cranston (b.1970) is a painter-storyteller, a way of working that is enhanced by his often painting on the linen bound covers of old books. His stories coalesce in the process of making - the paintings emerging gradually through the manipulation of his materials: layering, lacquering, bleaching, collaging and constantly re-working his way into images that seem to shift backwards and forwards in time. He has described one of his works as ‘a painting that came out of my brush one day’, a statement that sums up his approach. They are resolutely contemporary in spirit and yet connected by a strong thread to painters of the past, especially perhaps to the intimism of Vuillard and Bonnard, or to Matisse or Munch.

These are narrative paintings, drawn from the artist’s memory and observations of life and liberally sprinkled with reference to cinema, literature, and art history. This exhibition will present a new sequence of large scale canvases, alongside the book cover that paintings for which he has become best known in recent years.

A new publication devoted to the book cover paintings will be published alongside the exhibition featuring the artist’s own commentaries about where the paintings come from.

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Installation Views

Andrew Cranston in the Studio Spotlight Andrew Cranston in the Studio Andrew Cranston’s paintings of landscapes and domestic scenes delight the eyes. Ocula Advisor Rory Mitchell discusses technique and inspiration with the Scottish artist on the occasion of his solo exhibition at Ingleby, Edinburgh. Read the story
About the Artist

Cranston is a storyteller of sorts, without a clear story to tell. His work is seductive in terms of its use of narrative and humour, but it is the humour of Samuel Beckett or Buster Keaton, always touching on the strangeness and pathos of ordinary life. He draws on a variety of sources, in particular his own personal history; questioning the veracity of memory. This autobiographical activity is combined with passages culled from literature, anecdotes and jokes, second hand accounts, images from cinema and observations of life. Often working directly onto hardback book covers his work is not pre-conceived but emerges through the manipulation of materials—paint, varnish, collage—and the suggestions that this activity provokes, layering and re-working the images until something essential coalesces. As Liza Dimbleby has written in a recent essay ‘the images that are encouraged to surface are sometimes taboo; sex and solitude, death, nightmares—the ultimate questions, not without a sly humour.’ Cranston was born in Hawick in 1969 and currently lives and works in Glasgow.

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Also Exhibiting

All Exhibitions
Group Exhibition
GROUP EXHIBITION Songs Of Innocence & Experience Part Ii Ingleby 20 June–5 September 2026 Edinburgh
About the Gallery

Founded in 1998, Ingleby maintains an ambitious program of exhibitions and off-site projects by established and emerging artists. Over the past 14 years, it has secured a reputation as one of the country’s leading private galleries, renowned for the quality of its exhibitions and publications. The gallery represents artists of international standing, whilst also introducing and supporting artists at earlier stages in their career. We are pleased to advise public, private and corporate clients about buying art, and in starting, building and maintaining collections.

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Address
33 Barony Street
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Opening Hours
Wed - Sat, 11am - 5pm
And by appointment
(1)
Edinburgh 33 Barony Street
Ingleby contemporary art gallery in Edinburgh United Kingdom
Ingleby
33 Barony Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
+44 131 556 4441
http://www.inglebygallery.com

Opening hours
Wed - Sat, 11am - 5pm
And by appointment
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The art world in focus