The Fleming Collection gallery in Berkeley Street was vacated by the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation as rents doubled, to enable the Foundation to focus on its policy of promoting Scottish art internationally, an example of which is the selection of works from recent graduates from Scottish art schools on show in the derelict industrial environment of the Studio at the David Reynolds Art Foundation in London and run in collaboration with the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.

The selection this year has less artists on show than in previous years in order to give each artist greater exposure, but it has resulted with a show that, as an exhibition, is not as rich as 2016 which had more life and a greater amount of sculptural work such as David Evan Mackay’s “Standing Reserve” which also visually raised the height of the studio space.  The works by the students are varied, with the highlights being Clara Hastrup’s video installation, Laura Grainger’s links to classical art and decoration and Kitty Hall’s science fiction world with sinister alien overtones.  Felix Carr’s series of paintings has the exposure of a complete wall of the studio space, and Camille Bernard is a worthy recipient of the Fleming-Wyfold 2017 Bursary with her work that links back to the historic links between Glasgow and the Caribbean and also looks forward into the future.  George Ridgway, the 2016 recipient, also has a room in which he is showing his work as if in an artist’s studio.

For some reason, although it is a Scottish-wide initiative, the Glasgow School of Art has achieved the largest proportion of artists, whereas 2016 was more representative of Scotland as a whole, although Francis Rokhlin from the Edinburgh School of Art with her fascination with windows is an interesting non-Glasgow exhibitor.  While the overall emphasis is good for Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art, again 2016 seemed to be more geographically balanced.