Press

Craig Mulholland is the living, breathing Glasgow Art Fair poster boy. He may position himself in the traditionalist bracket, but like the artwork he creates, Mulholland defies definition. A wannabe rock star in his younger years, growing up in a bleak Pollok council estate in the late 1980s inspired a love of the ‘great masters of art’: Joy Division and New Order. Their tunes were pretty good, says Mulholland, but it was the album cover images that really caught his eye.

With the Kelvingrove museum as the only stomping ground for a young artist seeking a muse, Mulholland’s subsequent figurative form was inspired over the years by literature and the world of music. It was a passion that led to a place for him at Glasgow School of Art. There, technology intervened in the form of digital art imagery, opening up what Mulholland considered a ‘polarised art scene’, affording him the scope to break down the dichotomy between his traditional and contemporary art musings. Today, sitting in a greasy spoon café at the heart of Trongate’s burgeoning independent art scene, as he prepares for Glasgow Art Fair, the 35-year-old is still striving to blur the edges. ‘The resresentation of art in Scotland suggests that to be successful you have to be either traditional or avant-garde. In reality, there’s a whole murky space in between.’

Mulholland graduated from GSA in 1991 and now works with paint, drawing, digital and intaglio printing to develop his works. A minute’s walk round the corner from where we sit is home to one of Mulholland;s greatest accomplishments to date, Plastic Casino, a site-specific work launched last year in collaboration with Glasgow gallery space, Sorcha Dallas.

The piece, set in a former sweatshop, complete with murals sculptures, paintings and video work, was a major critical success for the young artist. The work safely packaged away to create space for his next project in his studio, but he happily trawls through the slides form the show.

‘I call on different roles when I work; I don’t really believe in style. I don’t think I’m necessarily modern in the visual codes I use, but the practice itself is modern. Whether my work is contemporary depends on the mindset of those viewing it.’

Mulholland’s multi-disciplinary approach also bleeds into the final installation process. ‘By the time I get to installing my work, it almost feels like the work is something I’ve just found; a simple prop. The way I hang the work is almost like directing, like making cast members for a film.’

Mulholland will be represented by London’s recognisably more traditional gallery, Duncan Miller Fine arts, at the impending Glasgow Art Fair. ‘I’m a bit of an oddity within the Miller remit,’ he confesses, ‘but that’s what the Art Fair should be about.’

Having evolved over the past decade, the Fair celebrates its 10th birthday this year, and falls in the midst of the inaugural Glasgow International Art Festival and the launch of Scotland’s first international arts magazine, The Map. Is this a change of pace for what has been arguably been misconstrued as a fairly provincial fair for fine art lovers? And what does Mulholland make of the implications for the Scottish art scene in general?

‘The Fair will hopefully fall in line with the key changes happening in Scotland right now; its like what happened in London in the mid-1990s. There’s a lot of self-initiated stuff happening. People are starting to open private galleries. The Fair’s a good way of filtering those influences back into the mainstream.’ Exposure for the participating galleries is important, says Mulholland. ‘Ventures like the Fair create a profile and can represent the artist, and the artist can still retain his or her independence.