John Kilbride Dead Grateful at Grateful Gallery
I managed to catch a recent exhibition at the Grateful Gallery in Glasgow, a new art space run by local artists that’s recently opened in Garnethill, close to the Art School and just a short walk from Sauchiehall Street.
Titled Dead Grateful, it featured the work by artist Smug – a creator best known in Glasgow for his many murals across the city – taking a dramatic look at the space where faith and mortality meet, with skeletons incorporated into the iconography of a variety of world religions.
While the similarly named American rock band celebrated their 60th anniversary in San Francisco this weekend, some of the work wouldn’t perhaps look out of place on a Grateful Dead album cover. The work The Pilgrimage might on first glance be a (skeleton) monk in his cowl, but those versed in the iconography of the band might interpret it as a skeleton with a guitar. It’s just one of the thought-provoking pieces in the show.
The next exhibition – a group show entitled Cuttin’ it Fine – opens on August 7 until August 31, and features cut out work by around 20 artists.
Grateful Gallery – founded jointly by local artists OhPanda, Conzo and Ciaran Globel might be a new gallery in Glasgow, and it might be one of the smaller art spaces, but this makes it a more nimble and responsive to the fast-moving artistic environment in the spontaneous and effervescent space that exists between street art and the formality and technique of the usual art gallery.
Grateful Gallery is at 50 Hill Street, Garnethill, Glasgow.
