Fruitmarket Segments

Poor Things

Poor Things was an exhibition of sculptures made by 22 artists, working across the UK, shown at Fruitmarket in spring 2023. It was born out of conversations about art and social class that Emma Hart and Dean Kenning had together, both as friends and as artists.
Emma and Dean’s hope for Poor Things was that it might reveal the multiplicity of experiences of artists whose work speaks to working and lower-middle class backgrounds, whilst identifying points of commonality.
Details on Poor Things can be found at the Fruitmarket online archive.
 
In May 2023, Emma, Dean and Fruitmarket director Fiona Bradley spoke with in front of a live audience, with a number of the contributing artists joining via Zoom. They all discussed the show, their experiences and launched the exhibition catalogue, which is still available to buy online from the Fruitmarket bookshop
Along with Emma and Dean, the artists who appeared at the event were Linda Aloysius, John Beagles and Graham Ramsay, Joseph Buckley, Andrew Cooper, Jamie Cooper, Lee Holden, Josie Ko, Rebecca Moss, Janette Parris, Anne Ryan, Aled Simons, and Laura Yuile.
 
A film of this event is available on the Fruitmarket YouTube channel.
 
A free, public space for culture in the heart of Edinburgh, the Fruitmarket provides inspiration and opportunity for artists and audiences. We programme, develop and present world-class exhibitions, commissions, publications, performances, events and engagement activities, opening up the artistic process.
To find out more about our current exhibition programme and upcoming events visit fruitmarket.co.uk, where you can sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, Twitter / X or Facebook

Howardena Pindell

A November 2021 conversation between Howardena Pindell and Fruitmarket Director, Fiona Bradley, about the selection of works in Howardena Pindell: A New Language at Fruitmarket.
This was Howardena Pindell’s first solo exhibition in a public organisation in the UK.
The exhibition tracked the development of Pindell’s artistic language from the 1970s to now, and examined her work as exemplary in articulating empowerment.
 
The exhibition brought together a significant selection of her work, and did its best to celebrate and communicate her vision, in the hope that we might all be able to respond to her urgent call for change.
 
Pindell makes beautiful, abstract paintings by spraying paint through a hand-made, hole-punched stencil. She makes intricate, complex paintings that layer paint with collaged paper circles, thread, glitter, powder and sequins. She makes paintings about war, Apartheid, police violence, the AIDS crisis, slavery and the environment. Her works on paper play with the tropes of lists, tallies, graphs and grids. And her two videos, Free White and 21 (1980) and Rope/Fire/Water (2020) confront racism head on.
 
Further details about the show, including images and video, can be found at the Fruitmarket online archive.
The book produced to accompany the exhibition is available from the Fruitmarket Bookshop.
 
A film of this conversation is available on the Fruitmarket YouTube channel.
 
A free, public space for culture in the heart of Edinburgh, the Fruitmarket provides inspiration and opportunity for artists and audiences. We programme, develop and present world-class exhibitions, commissions, publications, performances, events and engagement activities, opening up the artistic process.
 
To find out more about our current exhibition programme and upcoming events visit fruitmarket.co.uk, where you can sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, Twitter / X or Facebook

Karla Black

Karla Black in conversation with Fiona Bradley, Director of Fruitmarket, from September 2021. This event accompanied Karla’s 2021 exhibition, sculptures (2001–2021) details for a retrospective.
Scottish artist Karla Black makes sculptures that begin with a desire to do something. To experiment with certain materials, certain colours. In turn, the sculptures she makes do something: they hang, heap, spread, reach, spill, stand, hover. The materials Karla uses include cosmetics, over-the-counter medicines, cleaning products and packaging as well as the paint, paper and plaster more usually found in fine art. She uses them because she likes them, and wants to see what they can do. She keeps her materials as raw as possible, so that the energy they embody is in the present or the future rather than the past.
Details on Karla’s show can be found at the Fruitmarket online archive.
The book which accompanied the show is can be ordered online.
A film of this event is available on the Fruitmarket YouTube channel.
 
A free, public space for culture in the heart of Edinburgh, the Fruitmarket provides inspiration and opportunity for artists and audiences. We programme, develop and present world-class exhibitions, commissions, publications, performances, events and engagement activities, opening up the artistic process.
To find out more about our current exhibition programme and upcoming events visit fruitmarket.co.uk, where you can sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, Twitter / X or Facebook.

Daniel Silver & Phyllida Barlow

Programmed alongside Daniel Silver: Looking at the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (11 June – 25 Sep 2022), this conversation explores space, sculpture and the audience encounter.
Silver was taught by Barlow at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and this conversation emerged from their professional and artistic relationship. As Fruitmarket Director, Fiona Bradley says, ‘Daniel mentioned having bumped into Phyllida and having had a conversation and I thought, wouldn't that be nice if I could eavesdrop on that conversation? Wouldn't it be nice if we could all eavesdrop on that conversation?’
More detail on Daniel’s show, Looking, can be found at the Fruitmarket online archive. The book which accompanied the show can be ordered online.
Phyllida Barlow: set showed at Fruitmarket in 2015. Find out more about the show on the digital archive.
An updated edition of the book which accompanied the show will be published in October 2024. Phyllida Barlow: Sculpture, 1963–2023 is the indispensable guide to the British artist Phyllida Barlow’s sculptural oeuvre across 6 decades, and charts the progression of the artist’s extraordinary and influential career.
A film of this event is available on the Fruitmarket YouTube channel.
 
A free, public space for culture in the heart of Edinburgh, the Fruitmarket provides inspiration and opportunity for artists and audiences. We programme, develop and present world-class exhibitions, commissions, publications, performances, events and engagement activities, opening up the artistic process.
To find out more about our current exhibition programme and upcoming events visit fruitmarket.co.uk, where you can sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, Twitter / X or Facebook.