Display
The large vitrine + flag pole outside the Toogs Artist Workshop in Burra Isle, Shetland provides a modest yet highly visible platform for Gaada to showcase its collaborations with the wider Shetland public.
Display is a legacy of project support from 2020 Creative Scotland Open Project Funding.
Check out the past exhibitions below ↓
17 March - 31 May 2023
Bog-Lore
Sammy Paloma
Join recent Workshop Bursary recipient Sammy Paloma in exploring a relationship between peatbogs, toilets, grief, death, and the gods that feels right to her, and which she is still learning to trace.
8 December 2022 - 3 February 2023
The important part is the space between
Rafferty
The important part is the space between is an ethereal exploration of Shetland’s jellyfish species through the unique lense of emerging Shetland based artist, Rafferty.
24 September - 15 October 2022
Mak a Laang Erm
Gaada presents our annual group exhibition, with work made in the Toogs Art Workshop over the last year by artists in Shetland and beyond. The exhibition extends out of Display and into the workshop for Doors Open Days on Saturday 24th September and Sunday 25th September.
The title comes from the popular Shetland phrase “Du’ll hae tae mak a laang erm”, which encourages us to help ourselves and take what you need.
19 August - 29 October 2022
Weemin’s Wark @ Glasgow Women’s Library
Together for the first time, artworks by Brooke Palmieri, Holly Graham, Hannah Harkes, Isabel Greenberg and Esther McManus from Gaada’s 2020/21 Weemin’s Wark programme will be shown in GWL’s beautiful space.
29 April - 31 July 2022
Critters Creepers Crawlers, Sprouting Solitary Soarers
Elie Coutts + Cameron Morgan
The Shetland installment of a two-part collaborative exhibition taking between Project Ability and Gaada.
12 March - 9 April 2022
Elie Coutts + Cameron Morgan @ Project Ability
The Glasgow installment of a two-part collaborative exhibition taking place between Project Ability and Gaada.
4 February - 24 April 2022
Surface, Sound + Sign
Brian Sinclair
Brian Sinclair is an artist who works across sound, painting and drawing. Encapsulating the energy of Brian’s practice through his favourite colours, green and orange, this exhibition celebrates Brian’s personal modes of creative practice and non-verbal communication.
19 November - 30th January 2021
CHECKPOINT
Bryan Mouat
Checkpoint is an exploration between virtual and physical landscapes, focusing on Shetland's standing stones. Unchanged through centuries, standing stones stand strong and stoic, acting as a beacon of hope for those who are lost.
10 September - 24 October 2021
Mak A Laang Erm
Gaada presents a special group exhibition, with work made in the Gaada Visual Arts Workshop over the last year by artists in Shetland and beyond. The exhibition extends out of Display and into the workshop for Doors Open Days on Saturday 25th September and Sunday 26th September.
The title comes from the popular Shetland phrase “Du’ll hae tae mak a laang erm”, which encourages us to help ourselves and take what you need.
30 July - 5 September 2021
Git Ootside, Inner Bairn
Jennifer McLeaskintosh
This exhibition explores the artists relationship with themself and different aspects of family; children, spouse, siblings, parents: with themes of connection, communication, perspective, thought and memory.
18 June - 25 July 2021
We Axe for What We Want
Esther McManus
This exhibition presents an extract from Time in the Archive, Esther’s contribution to We Axe For What We Want, a publication which foregrounds the multiple voices and collaborations of Gaada’s 2020/21 programme Weemin’s Wark.
14 May - 13 June 2021
I will not give up on a list of things I like to stay the same without ending
Struan Haswell
The drawings, text works and badges on show have been created and curated by Struan and explore themes of camouflage occurring both in the human and natural world. The collection of hand-made badges contain statements and imagery which further draw us into his hopeful and creative world.
5 March - 7 May 2021
Reigniting Flame (Vol.1, Ch.1-3)
Rhys Mouat
This exhibition launches the first comic in the fantasy saga Reigniting Flame, by Shetland illustrator and storyteller, Rhys Mouat. This comic follows the adventures of sibling protagonists Shirifuari and Shirinuri through a medieval world of bandits, armies and dark forces, where the very fate of the world is at stake…
(Cancelled) January – March 2021
Weemin’s Wark Collective Exhibition
Glasgow Women’s Library
This exhibition was cancelled due to covid 19 restictions in place at the time. You can read more about the Weemins Wark Project here.
15 December 2020 - 24 January 2021
Eetum Peetum Penny Pie
Isabel Greenberg
In their Weemin’s Wark exhibition Eetum Peetum Penny Pie, internationally acclaimed graphic novelist, Isabel Greenberg, entwines the harmless language of children’s counting songs with two examples of witchcraft accusations from Shetland history.
16 - 29 November 2020
As long as we make it
Hannah Harkes
As Long As We Make It' is both an art installation and an invitation to a shared act. The woollen plait, extending from Gaada's flagpole, is woven from knitted yarn and dyed using pigments found in plants, following methods used by the Vikings. This object honours tradition and pays tribute to ancient craftwork and labour. The materials used reflect relationships people forged long ago, with livestock and land, relations that, in Shetland, have traditionally been dominated by women exercising economic agency.
* weather permitting
26 October - 8 November 2020
No winder you canna catch fish
Holly Graham
As part of Weemin’s Wark, Gaada presents a new body of work taking its starting point from an oral history account by Katie Laurenson from 1961.
5 – 18 October 2020
Take Nothing for Granted: Theses on History
Brooke Palmieri (Camp Books)
These "theses" draw upon the 16th-century emblem tradition, playfully pairing mottos with symbolic images for the sake of quick & dirty history lessons from below, that is, from the perspective of an LGBT+ gatecrasher who tries not to take anything for granted …
18 – 28 September 2020
Display
Mari Johnson
For the first exhibition in Display, Gaada are delighted to share a selection of recent work produced by Shetland artist Mari Johnson, alongside selected work produced in the Workshop prior to lockdown ...