Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Exhibition and 2018 Jon Schueler Visual Artist
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture on the Isle of Skye, has announced the next recipient of the Jon Schueler Visual Artist residency and a new exhibition by last years’s artist, David Lemm.
The Jon Schueler Scholarship, now in its sixth year, is a unique international partnership between Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI and the Jon Schueler Charitable Trust, with support from the Royal Scottish Academy. It has been established to celebrate and remember the life, work and artistic influence of internationally renowned artist and abstract expressionist painter, Jon Schueler (1916-1992), and in recognition of his very special relationship with the landscape and environment of the Sound of Sleat.
Rachel Schmidt from the U.S.A., who will take up her residency between July and October, is an installation artist based in the Washington, DC region.
She uses time-based media and installation to explore our impact on ecosystems, future landscapes, and the role that myth plays in our understanding of the environment.
Rachel received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore before moving to Warsaw, Poland for a year of artistic research. From 2012-2016 Rachel worked as an Exhibition Coordinator at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and has been an artist in residence at the Arlington Arts Center, Taipei Artist Village, Vermont Studio Center, and the Taller Portobelo Norte in Panama.
She has exhibited throughout the US and Internationally, and has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, The Washington Post, and numerous other print and online publications.
Each year an international contemporary visual artist, which to date has attracted over 1300 applicants from all over the world, is selected. Recipients have included artists from Japan, France, Scotland and Germany.
“Receiving the Jon Schueler Scholarship is such an incredible honour. As an artist, my practice is centred around the environment and the future of the natural world. Having the opportunity to learn from and work with such an iconic landscape and culture will surely enrich all the artworks I make going forward.” Rachel Schmidt
An exhibition of work from the 2017 Schueler Artist in Residence, David Lemm, will open at Sabhal Mòr on Monday 19th February.
During the course of the residency Lemm focused on the area around the college campus and Kilbeg, considering the site for the first new village on Skye for 100 years.
The rare opportunity to experience somewhere on the threshold of becoming a ‘place’ forms the basis of the resulting works. Positioned somewhere between reality and fiction, David responded to this transitional time by considering perceptions of the past, exploring existing topographies and ecological concerns, whilst playfully imaging a future place through an artist’s eye.
His first hand experiences, though a prism of discovering Gaelic language, and extensive studio based research, have informed three distinct series’ of works incorporating drawing, collage and printmaking.
Kath MacLeod, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s Arts Development Officer said “From his week’s Gaelic learning course in the summer on the college’s short courses programme to running public studio events and workshops with local school pupils, David has engaged fully with the community here at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.”
The exhibition entitled’Passing Place’ will run from 20th February until 20th April with an opening event on Monday 19th February at 6.30pm in the Atrium of the main campus building.
Based in Edinburgh, Lemm’s multidisciplinary approach spans various techniques and processes, including printmaking, mixed media and moving image.
Born in Kirkcaldy, Lemm studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee. He has been engaged in a broad range of projects through residencies, educational programmes, and commissions, and in recent years has held solo exhibitions at Edinburgh Printmakers (Debris and Phenomena, 2015) and House of Illustration, London (Mapping King’s Cross, 2016).