Spin Events
Ronnie Heeps
Frankie Sings the Blues by Ronnie Heeps (c) Courtesy of the artist and the Embassy Gallery
Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh
27 January 2005
This month, we will be visiting the exhibition, Frankie and Other Stories at the Embassy Gallery. Glasgow artist Ronnie Heeps is not easy to describe or pin down. He is a horror/dream/fairy storyteller for the electronic age. His paintings are psychedelic and psychological, surreal and satirical. The ‘airbrush’ style and palette of some of Ronnie’s paintings might suggest a naïve mysticism, but wisdom and complexity rise to the surface the longer you look. Indeed you may have seen two of his beautiful (and spooky) Ghost Paintings at the Collective Gallery (one in the Haunted Swing exhibition and one in the Birthday Party) – the forms of Margaret Thatcher and Lady Agnew gradually appear in what one initially takes to be a white monochrome. The ‘Frankie’ of the exhibition title is Ronnie’s name for Frankenstein’s monster. In his first solo show for three years, Ronnie focuses on the isolation and frustration of a person/monster who can find no place in the society that created him.
Also joining us to ask Ronnie questions, will be Dr Neil Mulholland, who is Lecturer in Contemporary Art at Edinburgh College of Art, a busy curator and a prolific writer. Our hosts are Jenny Hogarth and the other directors who established the Embassy Gallery last year. Individually, they are all talented young artists and as a group they deliver the professional development programme for students (and public) at ECA. They have already organised three performance and video evenings as well as touring group shows to Glasgow and Manchester. This is the first time, since the Collective opened 20 years ago, that artists have set up such an ambitious venture in Edinburgh (they intend that Embassy, like the Collective, will continue and develop beyond their own tenure). Their potential has been recognised with funding from Scottish Arts Council, ECA Trustees and the young Scot award. Everyone is enjoying following their progress.