Independent curator
Jim Harold
photograph by Jim Harold
Iain Irving is a curator and lecturer at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. He has worked in exhibition organising and curating at various Scottish art venues including The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh and CCA, Glasgow before moving to the North-East of Scotland in 1997.
His recent curatorial practice has initiated and produced various exhibitions and projects that focus on questions of definitions of Contemporary Art. Through analysis of the processes, perceptions, forms, contexts and locations, he evidences particularities of these cultural fields thereby enabling a meaningful and useful understanding of how, why, where and when 'things' are identified and categorized as art.
He takes the view that curatorial projects are cultural products in a similar way to art works and that audiences are key within the cultural system of contemporary art. Therefore his practice lies within ways in which individuals can be encouraged, stimulated and facilitated to engage with and explore contemporary art meaningfully and with perception.
Most notably, he curated the exhibition, The House in the Woods (1998) for the CCA, Glasgow which toured the UK, The Blue Chamber exhibition (2000) at Duff House, Banff Aberdeenshire, Catterline Arts Festival, Aberdeenshire (2003/5) and Oak Trees and Fountains (2004), a series of site specific artwork at Drum Castle, nr Banchory in collaboration with Aberdeenshire Council and The National Trust for Scotland.
