A LEADING art gallery will have doubled in size when it re-opens next summer.
The Fruitmarket Gallery is taking over the warehouse next door to its current site in Edinburgh’s Market Street as part of a multi-million-pound project to transform the space into “Scotland’s newest contemporary arts venue”.
The expansion will allow the Fruitmarket to deliver a year-round multi-art programme spanning performance, theatre, music, poetry and more while continuing its commitment to contemporary visual art.
The former fruit and vegetable warehouse has long operated as a venue, with the Electric Circus nightclub calling the space home for seven years until March 2017.
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The redeveloped warehouse will be used by Turner-nominated artist Karla Black when the currently closed gallery opens again as expected in August 2020.
The Glasgow-based’s artist’s inaugural exhibition for the newly expanded Fruitmarket will see Black experiment with the height of the warehouse space as well as present sculptural works selected from her career so far.
Though the gallery curated Black’s solo presentation for Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2011, this major exhibition will be the first time the Fruitmarket has worked with her in Scotland.
It’s hoped the redevelopment by local architects Reiach and Hall will “ensure that the Fruitmarket can continue to operate at the forefront of contemporary culture for decades to come”.
“This is an exciting year for us, as we work towards opening an inspirational new space for creative, collaborative working and our refreshed and renovated existing building,” says the gallery’s director Fiona Bradley.
Bradley continues: “We can’t wait to work with Karla Black. There is a defiant force to her work – it is demanding and disruptive as well as beautiful and inspiring. It is because of this that we invited her to be the first artist to work in the newly reopened Fruitmarket: we value artistic experiment and we want her to really challenge the new space. We look forward to sharing her insights with our audience.”
The Fruitmarket has opened a pop-up bookshop and events space at the top level of the Waverley Mall near the Waverley Steps while the Market Street gallery is closed.
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