The group exhibition POP LIFE offers different perspectives on popular culture. In an exhibition that draws inspiration from politics, music, film, fairy tales and queer subcultures, the human figure is at the center.
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The Student
1ST DECEMBER 2024 |
Art Culture
Review: POP LIFE at the City Art Centre
Lolo Schaw Miller
Featuring over 80 works by 13 artists from across the globe, the City Art Centre’s POP LIFE exhibition immerses viewers in the dynamic relationship between art and popular culture in playful and provocative ways. After being exhibited in Sweden and the Netherlands, the exhibition has arrived in Edinburgh, now further enriched by the inclusion of Scottish artists.
POP LIFE confronts the limiting definitions of “high” art and “low” culture, celebrating artists who draw on elements of everyday life and focus on human form in visually engaging and provocative forms. Co-curator Euan Gray describes that the exhibition showcases artists who “champion the enduring appeal of traditional drawing, [and] wholeheartedly embrace the language of pop culture.”
A highlight of the exhibition is co-curator Witte Wartena’s series Can You See Me? His drawings, taking the form of online video call screenshots, combine still-life and portraiture in a digitally mediated form, adapting the “straight from life” approach in transformative and radical ways. Neither a critique nor an endorsement, his collection provides a nuanced social commentary on the changing nature of human relationships, connection and communication in our increasingly virtual world. Laura Bruce too plays with technology, by offering a unique fusion of sight and sound. Her graphite portraits of country music legends, such as Dolly Parton, are brought to life by the addition of headphones – as the viewer listens to the original recording of ‘Jolene,’ Parton’s smile seems to become ignited and energetic.
The exhibition, pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and traditional conventions, is diverse in expression and themes. Whilst David Shrigley brings something of a child-like joy to the exhibition through his use of bright colours and quirky imagery, Jamie Fitzpatrick confronts power and authority in his bold paintings which offer a new take on the act of defacing public statues. Meanwhile Notes to Self, a collection of 20 works by Paul McDevitt, who fuses doodles, collages and text, takes a more personal approach, giving viewers intimate access into his artistic mind and creative thought. Whereas Marc Brandenburg’s work invokes a reflective process, engaging the viewer in a deeper dialogue about visibility, identity and experience. His drawings of the Tiergarten in Berlin, a park known as a popular meeting place for gay men, emphasise that “human interaction is implied by our knowledge of the location” rather than through what is directly observed.
In some ways the variety of subjects and themes could make for a disunity in the experience, but the exhibition remarkably weaves together these disparities in a way which speaks to identity, culture and the shifting nature of human connection in a digital world. It connects what appears disconnected – and powerfully the cohesive glue that sticks these fragments together is revealed to be art itself.
POP LIFE at the City Art Centre on until Sun 9 Mar 2025
The Student News |
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International Style at City Art Centre Edinburgh
 Paul McDevitt, Notes to Self, 19 January, 2020, ink & acrylic on paper
David White
November 7, 2024 |
Complementing its current Inked Up: Printmaking in Scotland exhibition, Edinburgh’s City Art Centre is hosting Pop Life, which explores the intersection of popular culture and contemporary figurative drawing. A travelling exhibition, it has previously showcased in Sweden and the Netherlands, and this iteration has been tailored to include Scottish artists, alongside international artists, many of whom are exhibiting in Scotland for the first time.
Each artist is known for engaging with popular culture, referencing diverse influences such as music, film, fashion, literature, social media and celebrities over the past six decades. Over 80 works are presented, with several new pieces created specifically for this exhibition.
Highlights include a room transformed with UV light by Marc Brandenburg (Germany) to explore unseen sides of the Tiergarten Park in Berlin; drawn tributes to country music icons by Laura Bruce (USA) accompanied by vocal renditions of their biggest hits; large scale drawings and a new, monumental sculpture by Edinburgh-based Jamie Fitzpatrick looking at who in society is publicly memorialised; and new drawings by David Shrigley in his absurdist and humorous style.
Also showing is Through Line (7th November – 2nd March, 2025), a group show centring on the exploration of line in artistic practice
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| The Herald Magazine |
Saturday November 9, 2024 |
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GALLERY/EXHIBTION ROUND UP |
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Pop Life Artists display for the first time in new exhibition
POP LIFE
9 November-9 March. Entry from £5. City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DE
Pop Life underscores the enduring allure of the human form as a reflection of indentity and societal norms, drawing inspiration from art history, socio-political moments and cultural shifts over the past six decades. There's works from Scottish and international artists on display, right, many of which are exhibitiong in Scotland fot the first tims. https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/pop-life |
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POP LIFE Exhibition Review (Visual Arts)
'Pop Life' offers a great range of interpretations of both figurative drawing and popular culture, drawing from a variety of different eras and styles.
BY OSCAR LUND 11/12/2024
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Having previously exhibited in the Netherlands and Sweden, Pop Life finds its way to Edinburgh with an altered line-up that includes several Scottish artists. Pop Life plays fast and loose with its identity as an exhibition, quite literally drawing from popular culture through depictions of the human form.
Witte Wartena hits both themes brilliantly with his drawings of scenes from popular British television shows like Have I Got News for You and University Challenge. His watercolour representations of these programmes depict episodes in which politicians feature, bringing into the forefront the role that entertainment media plays in our political systems. From Boris Johnson on a panel show to Kwasi Kwarteng testing his quiz knowledge for all to see, Wartena makes us question what those with political aspirations have to gain through entertainment.
Similarly on brand with the exhibition’s mission statement are Laura Bruce’s enormous graphite portraits of several country singers, accompanied by renditions of their music performed by the artist’s band. The towering portraits evoke the imagery of memorabilia, uncanny detailed depictions taken from their natural environment on the side of a mug or a faded T-shirt and placed, like a fish out of water, into a gallery space. What’s more pop art than that?
Other works, like Fiona Michie’s shockingly detailed pencil drawings, ooze atmosphere, using Scottish settings to evoke imagery of the pop culture of the past in an interpolation of classic literature and film.
Much like Michie, Euan Gray draws upon the pop culture of the past with his reproduction of a sequence from John Huston’s Moulin Rouge (1952) in ‘Dancers’.
The drawings’ grainy texture and imperfect shapes hold in stasis what was only meant to be seen in 1/24th of a second. Accompanying the Dancers is ‘Dancer’, a piece depicting a woman performing a TikTok routine. The contrast of past and present is used effectively to illustrate the significant change in pace and style that our popular culture has undertaken.
Pop Life offers a great range of interpretations of both figurative drawing and popular culture, drawing from a variety of different eras and styles.
Pop Life is at Edinburgh’s City Arts Centre until March 9th 2025. More info here.
Main Image: Paul-McDevitt, Notes to Self, 19 January 2020, Ink and acrylic on paper. Image courtesy of the artist. |
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Pop in to City Art Centre and challenge your mind
Arts • Culture
10 Jan 2025
Pop culture aficionados are invited to immerse themselves in POP LIFE, a thought-provoking touring exhibition being hosted by Edinburgh's City Art Centre.
Running until March, it explores the intersection of popular culture and contemporary figurative drawing, challenging traditional distinctions between high and low quality art.
The display features works by 13 Scottish and international artists, many of whom will be exhibiting in Scotland for the first time.
Each artist uniquely engages with popular culture, referencing diverse influences such as music, film, fashion, literature, social media, and celebrities.
Co-curated by artists Euan Gray and Witte Wartena, POP LIFE is a travelling exhibition previously showcased in Sweden and the Netherlands.
The Edinburgh iteration has been tailored to include Scottish artists.
 POP LIFE is described as a vibrant fusion of pop culture and contemporary figurative drawing Picture: Greg Macvean |
Edinburgh-based artist Jamie Fitzpatrick is showing his largescale drawings alongside a new monumental sculpture, looking critically at who in society is publicly memorialised.
Internationally renowned artist David Shrigley presents 16 brand new drawings, which will showcase his absurd and humorous work.
Visitors can also look forward to works by renowned and earlycareer artists including Marcel van Eeden, Euan Gray, Paul McDevitt, Charlotte Schleiffert, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Witte Wartena, Andrew Cranston, Laura Bruce,
Marc Brandenburg, Donald Urquhart and Fiona Michie.
More than 80 works will be presented, with several new pieces created specifically for this exhibition.
Curator Euan Gray said: “In an era dominated by computer generated images, AI and 3D printing, this exhibition offers us a wonderful opportunity to champion the enduring appeal of traditional drawing, wholeheartedly embrace the language of pop culture and promote a remarkable group of Scottish and international artists, for whom the human form remains an essential motif." |
 25/1/25
| Arts • Culture • Entertainment |
Susan Mansfield on new exhibition Pop Life at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Figurative drawing is alive and well and on display at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, writes Susan Mansfield
Pop Life City Art Centre, Edinburgh
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 Installation view of Pop Life at the City Art Centre Edinburgh | Greg Macvean |
Onceuponatime, drawing the human figure was the foundation of any artist's training. Those days are gone, but Euan Gray and Witte Wartena, the curators of Pop Life at Edinburgh's City Art Centre, have managed to pull together an impressive line-up of 13 Scottish and international artists for whom figurative drawing is alive, contemporary and central to their practices.
The show comes to Edinburgh after iterations in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, and circles thoughtfully around its theme of art and popular culture. Rather than simply tell us that boundaries between high and low culture are
blurring — which, let's face it, isn't really news to anyone
— it reflects on the different ways artists engage with film, television and particularly music. Many of the artists have made new work for this show.
Chilean artist Sandra Vasquez de la Horra was in last year's Venice Biennale. Her drawings fuse together aspects of myth and Latin American folk tradition with references from literature, music and Film, sometimes unsettling, sometimes humorous. Next to her work is a suite of 16 new drawings by David Shrigley referencing aspects of the figure in characteristically cheeky, subversive ways. His work is so well known that it surely counts both as contemporary art and popular culture.
Andrew Cranston's quieter works are tucked into a space off the main thoroughfare. His small ink drawings, like his paintings, carry specific meanings for him, here in relytion to his upbringing in Hawick, the music he listened to and the knitwear brands which dominated the town. By contrast, the drawings of Dutch artist Charlotte Schleiffert are big and dynamic; her figures wear masks and headdresses from Africa and Oceania, matched with clothing from Dutch or Japanese street fashion. |
Laura Bruce's impressive portraits of her favourite Nashville stars are each accompanied by a cover version of one of their songs by Bruce's band, Dangerpony. Mark Branden-burg draws images from his photographs of Berlin's Tiergarten, a popular cruising spot for gay men; the figures are absent but their presence is implied. Donald Urquhart, the multidisplinary Scottish artist who was a collaborator of Leigh Bowery in the 198os and started camp cabaret night The Beautiful Bend, draws in a distinctive black and white style. His drawing Family Circle (doll), referencing both Goya and the popular biscuit brand, is particularly striking.
Paul Mcdevitt, another Scot, presents the show's biggest work, a blast of red and yellow which looks like abstract expressionism but is built up from the marks of graffiti artists and the cartoon logos on delivery vans. He also contributes a series of his Notes to Self, drawings on A4 paper which combine references to modernism and surrealism with scribbled notes and phone numbers. Jamie Fitzpatrick, whose first degree was at Duncan of Jordanstone, is making waves at present with sculptures which satirise statuary with caricature and exaggeration, but drawing is an important part of his practice.
Fiona Michie's beautiful large-scale pencil drawings reference gothic 19th-century novels and the movies they inspire. Euan Gray looks at how pop culture shapes our view of artists such as Van Gogh by making drawings of actors who have played him, from Kirk Douglas to Willem Dafoe. Witte Wartena' s series Show Business for Ugly People freezes the frame on politicians who court public favour on TV shows, from Boris Johnson on Have I Got News For You to Donald Trump on WWE Wrestling.
All in all, it's a rewarding, thoughtprovoking show which conjures something new round every corner, while still creating groups of works with plenty to say to one another.
Pop Life until 9 March |
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EDINBURGH
City Art Center
POP LIFE
Artists in the exhibition: Marc Brandenburg, Laura Bruce, Andrew Cranston, Marcel van Eeden, Jamie Fitzpatrick, Euan Gray, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Paul McDevitt, Fiona Michie, Charlotte Schleiffert, David Shrigley, Donald Urquhart and Witte Wartena.
Curated by Euan Gray and Witte Wartena
The exhibition runs until March 9, 2025
Use of other materials
Although the current exhibition explores the human body through drawing, some of the participating artists have added additional elements. Laura Bruce's portraits of country singers are accompanied by cover songs performed by her band, Dangerpony. The cover songs can be listened to via headphones.
Marc Brandenburg's use of UV light immediately stands out from the rest of the exhibition. Brandenburg's work is placed in a separate room. The blue color engulfs the room and demands the audience's attention. The drawings in the room are dramatically illuminated in white contrast, creating a very poignant effect.  Marc Brandenburg,Installation shot. POP LIFE, City Art Centre, 2 November 2024 – 9 March 2025. Photo: Greg Macvean
Curiosity is already aroused outside the room. The blue, dark atmosphere draws you in, and a poster warns of explicit material, which increases the tension even more. Inside the room you are greeted by two panels with three drawings of a park. Not very explicit, nor adapted to the nightlife atmosphere that the UV light creates. On each of the end walls you discover what the warning was about: a drawing of a naked man lying on a sofa, and a scantily clad woman in a skull mask, sitting on a windowsill. The contrast between these figures and the park images is striking, but if you read the poster outside you discover that the park depicted is a popular meeting place for queers.
Use of genre features
Donald Urquhart also portrays parts of queer environments through his works. He draws on, among other things, the queer subcultures of the 1980s and the drag scene in London, of which he himself was a part. The work Cooking with gas depicts a playful, stylized figure of the iconic performance artist Leigh Bowery in a flamboyant costume.
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Donald Urquhart, Leigh Bowery - Cooking with gas, 2012, ink and gouache on paper. POP LIFE, City Art Centre, 2 November 2024 – 9 March 2025. Photo: Greg Macvean
The work of Scottish artist Fiona Michie is also eye-catching. The large, detailed drawings are reminiscent of dark and mysterious scenes from the horror film genre. Inverleith depicts a woman standing in a pond, with water up to her shoulders. The woman stands with her back to the viewer and looks up towards a house in the distance. The unknown and disturbing characterises the picture. The similarity between Inverleith and Theodor Kittelsen's Nøkken (The Water Sprite) affects my experience of the work. Michie's works are often inspired by the supernatural, and Inverleith is particularly inspired by the gothic, psychological horror film The Innocents from 1961.
Fiona Michie, Inverleith, 2011, Charcoal on paper. POP LIFE, City Art Centre, 2 November 2024 – 9 March 2025. Photo: Greg Macvean
The participating artists' very different perspectives on queer environments, interspersed with humour, mystery and drama, fascinate. In the POP LIFE exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, it is primarily the wealth of variation, and not just the individual expressions, that excites.
This review is part of Kunstavisen's project: Kunst og unge stemmer (Art and young voices). The project is supported by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB.
FACTS
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POP LIFE is a touring exhibition that has previously been shown in Sweden (2022–23) and the Netherlands (2023). It is a collaborative curation between artists Euan Gray and Witte Wartena, and has been adapted from previous versions to include Scottish artists: Marc Brandenburg, Laura Bruce, Andrew Cranston, Marcel van Eeden, Jamie Fitzpatrick, Euan Gray, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Paul McDevitt, Fiona Michie, Charlotte Schleiffert, David Shrigley, Donald Urquhart and Witte Wartena.
POP LIFE at City Art Centre
By Phyllis Stephen November 1, 2024
The exhibition at the City Art Centre which opens in November will show works by 13 Scottish and international artists on a pop culture theme.
Some of the artists have not exhibited their work in Scotland previously and each one engaged with popular culture with influences such as music, film, fashion, literature, social media and celebrity. The exhibition will use familiar language to delve into these themes.
Co-curated by artists Euan Gray and Witte Wartena, POP LIFE is a travelling exhibition previously showcased in Sweden and the Netherlands a couple of years ago. This iteration has been tailored to include Scottish artists and underscores the enduring allure of the human form as a reflection of identity and societal norms, drawing inspiration from art history, socio-political movements, and cultural shifts over the past six decades.
Visitors can look forward to works by renowned and early-career artists including Marcel van Eeden, Euan Gray, Paul McDevitt, Charlotte Schleiffert, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Witte Wartena, David Shrigley, Andrew Cranston, Laura Bruce, Marc Brandenburg, Donald Urquhart, Jamie Fitzpatrick, and Fiona Michie – all of whom draw inspiration from the imagery and messages of pop culture.
Marc Brandenburg has transformed a room of the gallery with UV light, to explore unseen sides of Tiergarten Park in Berlin, whilst Laura Bruce accompanies her drawn tributes to country music icons with vocal renditions of their biggest hits. Edinburgh-based artist Jamie Fitzpatrick is showing his large-scale drawings alongside a new monumental sculpture, looking critically and who in society is publicly memorialised. Internationally renowned artist David Shrigley will present 16 brand new drawings, showcasing his absurd and humorous work.
Culture and Communities Convener, Val Walker said: “I’m delighted that the City Art Centre can showcase this fantastic iteration of the POP LIFE exhibition featuring the works of 13 exciting artists. I’m especially proud that it will mark the first time some of these artists have displayed in Scotland, and that we will be presenting works created especially for the exhibition.
“I’m sure visitors will be captivated by these pieces and engage with the ever-changing dynamics of art within society.”
Curator Euan Gray, said: “In an era dominated by computer generated images, AI and 3D printing, this exhibition offers us a wonderful opportunity to champion the enduring appeal of traditional drawing. We can wholeheartedly embrace the language of pop culture and promote a remarkable group of Scottish and international artists for whom the human form remains an essential motif.”
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Bessie's Art
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The Death of Drawing?
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A critical review of Euan Gray and Witte Wartena’s Pop Life exhibition at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
Saturday 2 November 2024 – Sunday 9 March 2025 |
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It’s 2024: quantum computing is on the horizon; robots are replacing our jobs; AI is shaping the future of our creative landscape. Is it time to put down the humble pencil?
Gray and Wartena’s Pop Life invites us to brush the dust off the biro at the bottom of our bags and get sketching. Exploring the realm of contemporary drawing through the eyes of pop culture, Pop Life is, essentially, attempting to make drawing trendy again – in other words welcoming the pencil into the popular culture phenomenon. With the “decline in entry level drawing skills” (Farthing, 2011), this review of Pop Life will evaluate the success of Gray and Wartena in making drawing…cool again.
In order to form a strong analysis, one must utilise our trendy friend: the internet. According to generative AI, the factors that contribute to something becoming popular include:
Remarkability
Pop Life certainly hits the remarkability scale. The conception that drawing is a traditional technique resistant to innovation, is firmly contradicted by Marc Brandenburg’s installation.
Breaking the boundaries of graphite, Brandenburg accompanies his meticulous drawings with backlighting and dark walls to create the hedonistic atmosphere of a Berlin club. Eyes 5cm from his drawings, his skill is almost unbelievable.
Situated near the entrance to the exhibition, the white cube is disrupted by his Berlin portal – prompting us to leave any preconceived ideas about drawing at the door.
Social Currency
For drawing to be revived, it must be part of the ‘it-crowd’ and what better way to do it than presenting Donald Urquhart’s cultural entanglement of music, fame and contemporary art. From The Beetles to Leigh Bowery, Urquhart uses the fluid marks of ink to give insight into his lavish life of 1980s London. Satisfying our 20th century celebrity obsession, here the act of drawing acts as a means of knowledge for social currency.
Practicality
Bolstering the status of drawing requires mimicking the success of the pop culture sensation: TikTok – practical, immediate and short content. Upon entrance, David Shrigley’s eye-catching one-liners cover the wall. Flicking between the sixteen drawings presented, elitist art themes are subverted through his humorous take on the human form. Shrigley’s drawings become the epitome of ‘simple but effective’, using satire and child-like forms to expose the absurdity of human life. What could be argued as a lack of technique, only encourages us to all pick up a pencil regardless of our skill.
Price, availability and quality
Drawing exists as an accessible form of visualisation and communication in the exclusive art sphere. Pop Life demonstrates this inherent act of hand and mind, which bypasses our preconceived ideas of drawing. From artists using old book covers to drawing directly on the wall, drawing is presented as an ingenious and accessible route into the art sphere.
Through the affordable ticket into the exhibition and the use of commonplace materials, Pop Life displays an accessible sanctuary amongst the pompous fog of the art world.
In summary, Pop Life is an advertisement for the pencil. Resurging the outmoded practice of drawing through the entanglement of our 20th century obsession with popular culture, one can’t help to leave the exhibition itching to get their hands on a pencil.
Surrounded by an array of artists, Gray and Wartena highlight the overlooked complexity and depth of drawing. As artists themselves within the show, their strong passion in the potential of drawing radiates through the unspoken atmosphere of ‘we told you drawing was cool’.
Amongst the technological orientation of creative forms, reviving the physical process of drawing is an ambitious task. Nonetheless, Pop Life undoubtedly strengthens the popularity of contemporary drawing amidst the current art scene. Who knows…maybe drawing is cool again?
Bessie Schofield |
Untitled (2024) Marc Brandenburg, graphite on paper
Leigh Bowery - Cooking with Gas (2012) Donald Urquhart, ink and gouache on paper
Untitled (2024) David Shrigley, acrylic on paper
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