Scotland’s visual artists head to New York and Amsterdam

Glasgow based visual artists Rob Kennedy and Karen Cunningham have been selected to take part in the Scottish Arts Council’s New York and Amsterdam residencies, providing them with the opportunity to meet and work with key figures and organisations in the visual arts and promote their work to an international audience.

The residencies, which provide artists with time to develop new work and creative practice in two key centres for the visual arts, reflect the Scottish Arts Council’s commitment to supporting artists to fulfil their creative and business potential.  Rob will spend 4 months in New York while Karen will spend a year in Amsterdam. 

Rob Kennedy, whose practice includes sculpture, video and live video manipulation, arrived in New York last week where he will take part in an international residency programme with leading arts organisation Location One.  The Scottish Arts Council’s new partnership with the organisation has been developed to build on the success of the existing New York residency programme which has seen artists such as Rosalind Nashashibi and Lucy Skaer produce significant new work during their time in New York.

During his time in New York, Rob will have access to studio space in the city’s Soho district and will take part in workshops, gallery tours, openings, performances and artistic discussions, providing him with the opportunity to meet and work with other artists across the spectrum of creative practice.  He will also meet with curators, critics, and

established artists at Location One and take part in interviews about his work which will be aired on the Location One website.

Commenting on being selected to take part in the New York residency, Rob Kennedy said: ‘Armed with a vast amount of New York knowledge garnered from Taxi and Sesame Street, right through to Friends and CSI,  I fully expect the experience of being resident in this metropolis to be at the very least, hugely disorientating.

However, anchored in the studios of Location One, I would hope that this disorientation will provide the impetus for my work to meander down some very strange, yet engaging, avenues.’   

Mixed media artist and co-curator of The Open Eye Club, (a series of one off video/art events) Karen Cunningham has been based in Amsterdam for the last month. 

Karen whose work is influenced by writers such as Vonnegut, Dick and Houellebecq, will spend a year researching and developing her work and creative practice in a city which boasts unrivalled historical collections, an active contemporary art community and excellent transport links to major art centres across Europe.

Commenting on taking part in the Amsterdam residency Karen Cunningham said: ‘Being selected for the Amsterdam residency has come at a really pertinent time for me. In the last few years my practice as an artist has involved initiating projects in a curatorial capacity, in particular 'The Open Eye Club' events which I co-curate with Leonora Hennessy, and although this aspect of my practice will continue, I really welcome the opportunity to have a sustained amount of time to focus on, thinking, researching, experimenting and making new work. Living and working in this new environment will, I hope, stimulate and challenge my art making process.’

Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts at the Scottish Arts Council added: ‘Scotland’s growing reputation as a centre of excellence in and for the visual arts owes a great deal to the quality and ambition of the work being produced by the artists that chose to live and study here.  The residencies in New York and Amsterdam underline our ongoing commitment to providing artists with the support they need to take risks and innovate within their work.  They also provide an invaluable opportunity for artistic exchange and greater participation in the international discourse that informs contemporary visual arts practice.’

Notes to editors

1. The Scottish Arts Council is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) which was established by Royal Charter in 1994 and is also a Lottery distributor. The organisation serves the people of Scotland by fostering arts of excellence through investment, development, research and advocacy. Our corporate aims are: to support artists to fulfil their creative and business potential; to increase participation in the arts; and to place the arts, culture and creativity at the heart of learning. We invest £60m each year, including £15 million of National Lottery funding. For more information visit: www.scottisharts.org.uk
2. For more information on Location One visit: www.location1.org
3. Rob Kennedy’s recent exhibitions include Video Installation, Threshold Space, Perth, UK curated by Iliyana Nedkova December 2007, Live in Montreal installation & video, Studio Cormier, Montreal 2007 and Sapphire Season, Waygood Gallery, Newcastle, 2007.
4. Karen Cunningham’s recent exhibitions include The Synesthesiacs Sketchbook at Gallery g126 in Galway and mindblowing a 2 person show at Intermedia, Glasgow. For more information visit: www.karencunningham.org  

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council