Modern & Contemporary Art Exhibitions in Edinburgh

Our summer exhibition programme will include a solo presentation by the internationally acclaimed Scottish artist Katie Paterson, presenting her new work Afterlife. Commissioned for Folkestone Triennial 2025, curated by Collective’s Director Sorcha Carey, this important new work will be shared with audiences in Scotland for the first time at Collective. Afterlife brings together nearly 200 amulets in a sculptural installation designed in collaboration with Berlin-based architects, Zeller and Moye. Amulets are miniature talismanic objects, typically carved in stone. Appearing across millennia and cultures, they are small enough to be held in the hand or worn, and are generally considered protective. Afterlife reimagines this tradition. Working with museums around the world, Paterson has recreated amulets civilisations across the globe (including Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Viking, Islamic, Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Celtic, Greco-Roman and Pre-Columbian), using materials sourced from endangered landscapes and fragile ecosystems, to serve as a bridge between past and present. The materials used to recreate the amulets reflect the pressing environmental issues of our time. Rocks from glacial terrains left bare by retreating ice, coral from the Great Barrier Reef, stones from islands facing rising sea levels, and other materials from devastated or threatened ecosystems are transformed into tiny objects of reflection, connection and renewal. Each chosen material carries a story of environmental fragility, symbolising urgent issues such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, and the impact of climate change. Installed in a distinctive circular table crafted from sycamore by local makers Silvan, Afterlife explores themes of deep time, geology, and the environment. Drawing on centuries of cultural and spiritual traditions to reflect the fragility of the natural world today, Afterlife prompts us to consider the legacies we leave for future generations. Afterlife was commissioned by Creative Folkestone for Folkestone Triennial 2025, with additional support from The Shifting Foundation, Collective Edinburgh and Goethe Institut Glasgow.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero...

Sed non risus. Suspendisse lectus tortor, dignissim sit amet, adipiscing nec, ultricies sed, dolor.

Join us for the opening on Saturday 1st August from 2-4pm. We are delighted to present Andrew Mackenzie’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. This new body of work continues his exploration of landscape, memory, and the ways in which we map and shape our relationship with the land. In drawings and blueprints, a ground line is the baseline that represents the ground level or floor plane, and the word ‘geometry’ literally means ‘measured land’. The show builds on the artist’s formative memories of his dad’s use of orange twine and pegs to ‘draw’ a space on the ground before building, mapping out the foundation of a future structure in diagrammatic form: an imagined human space. Based on places frequently visited near his home, the paintings play on the painted ground and the space afforded by the field of the painting. They combine observed and imagined landscapes by layering coloured painted line drawings over, between, and through natural forms. They respond empirically to a sense of place while providing visions of the ghosts of possible futures.

This exhibition brings together sculptural ceramic works by eleven artists. Using clay as a shared point of departure, the exhibition highlights the diversity of approaches, forms and ideas that emerge through individual practices. While united by material, the works reveal distinct sensibilities, ranging from precise and architectural to expressive and intuitive, demonstrating the breadth of contemporary ceramic practice. Through this focused presentation, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how a single material can generate a wide spectrum of artistic responses, shaped by each artist’s process, perspective and relationship to clay.

Explore how fashion phenomenon Biba blossomed to become the world’s first lifestyle label, sparking a revolution in how people shopped and how Biba earned its spot as the brand that epitomises 1960s and 1970s fashion.

The Biba Story explores how fashion phenomenon Biba blossomed to become the world’s first lifestyle label, sparking a revolution in how people shopped and how Biba earned its spot as the brand that epitomises 1960s and 1970s fashion. The exhibition explores the history of Biba, from the first simple shift dresses, to the glamorous devoré wraps, sequinned bodices, leopard print coats, trouser suits, floppy hats and feather boas that came to epitomise the Biba look. Under its legendary founder Barbara Hulanicki, it was a phenomenon that has never been replicated. Lasting just over 10 years, it remains influential to this day and interest in this cult fashion and lifestyle label has never waned.