Graham Fagen chosen to represent Scotland at 56th Venice Biennale

Published On Wed 26 Mar 2014 by Grant Hill

Graham Fagen, a Senior Lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) and one of the UK’s foremost contemporary artists, has been chosen to lead Scotland’s representation at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

The Biennale is regarded as the largest and most prestigious visual arts exhibition in the world, and will attract millions of visitors from around the world when it takes place for the 56th time next year. Although this will be the fourth time that Graham has been involved in Scotland’s representation at Venice, this will be his be his first solo exhibition there.

The Scotland + Venice partnership chose him to present a solo exhibition commissioned and curated by Hospitalfield Arts, Arbroath, and he will now create the Scottish pavilion for the international show, which runs from 9th May to 22nd November 2015.

Graham’s work combines video, performance, photography, and sculpture with text, live music and even plants. His recurring artistic themes, which include flowers, journeys and popular song, are used as attempts to understand and talk clear-sightedly about the powerful forces that shape our lives.

He is taking part in no less than seven exhibitions this year in the Generations project, celebrating 25 years of Scottish art, to run concurrently with the Commonwealth games. He has previously exhibited internationally and, in 1999, was invited by the Imperial War Museum, London to work as the Official War Artist for Kosovo.

Graham said, “It is a fantastic honour to have been invited to represent Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2015. The Biennale is one of the most important events in the international calendar for the visual arts and I hope that I can do justice to its history and Scotland’s participation in it.”

This will be the seventh presentation from Scotland + Venice, the partnership between Creative Scotland, the National Galleries of Scotland and the British Council Scotland. Venice is an important project that helps to build Scotland’s profile and reputation as an international centre for the visual arts.

Amanda Catto, Chair of the Scotland + Venice Partnership and Portfolio Manager for Visual Arts at Creative Scotland, said, “We are very excited to be working with the artist Graham Fagen and Hospitalfield Arts to stage a new commission for Scotland and Venice 2015. The project provides Graham with an unprecedented opportunity to develop new work in an exceptional context. We look forward to welcoming people to the exhibition when Biennale opens in May next year.”

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