Alan Robinson : New MERZ Window
Stained Glass artist Alan Robinson recently completed his second window for MERZ. This window is located in Snug, the micro-flat within the MERZ staff-flat in Sanquhar. Alan incorporated locally found pottery, offcuts of Victorian stained glass as well as newly painted glass to depict elements of the four residential buildings at MERZ. Installed as part... Read More
Bettina Homann – Die Struckerei (A Poem of Labour)
The thread of this knitted work by Bettina Homann was spun from local words: it consists of the lines of the poem ‘Poem of Labour’ by the railwayman and poet Alexander Anderson, in which he glorifies the hard working men in the Upper Nithsdale area. The hours of tedious and laborious work of spinning and... Read More
Art Particles : Museum of Model Art
David Rushton‘s Art Particles 1/24th scale models opened on 27th May 2023 at the Museum of Model Art having been shown at the first Sanquhar Arts Festival in May 2019. The latest exhibition included the earliest of Rushton‘s models, a set design for The Rattle of a Simple Man from 1966. Alongside Art Particles was... Read More
MERZ : Impressions of Sanquhar
David Rushton’s ‘impression pot’ and Kristin Powers’ sculpture as ‘work in progress’ Impressions of Sanquhar at MERZ showcased the work of Kristin Powers and David Rushton to realise a possible new ceramics studio in Sanquhar: using local clay from the former brick-fields. If successful the ceramics studio will offer local training in pottery, development of... Read More
Impressions of MERZ : Florian Kaplick
As the finale to a wonderful evening interpreting Kurt Schwitters’ and Dada poetry – and with the help of A’ the Airts Youth Theatre – Florian Kaplick finished the evening with a collage of Beethoven and Schwiiters. WAR (2) presented the English (2023) version of Kurt Schwitters‘ ‘Moon‘ and Beethoven‘s Moonlight Sonata with piano and... Read More
COLLAGE & SOCIAL PURPOSE : WORKSHOP RESIDENCIES October 2023
The October 2023 Workshop-Residencies at MERZ will explore collage as a contemporary working method informed by history and ideology. MERZ is inspired by the working experiences of Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Höch. This 28 day residency will support artists to interpret three themes introduced during Workshops in week one. The Workshop Week will demonstrate how... Read More
Justin Tuttle : Kolaj Artist Workshop
Justin Tuttle arrived at MERZ for a week’s collage workshop with the Kolaj Institute. Titled ‘Passing Place’ three groups of ten artists have been exploring place and community in and around Sanquhar.
Heather Stearns : Kolaj Artist Workshop
Heather Stearns arrived at MERZ for a week’s collage workshop with the Kolaj Institute. Titled ‘Passing Place’ three groups of ten artists have been exploring place and community identity in and around Sanquhar.
On Request : MERZ in 2009
Fourteen years ago the MERZ site was an abandoned and derelict plumbers’ yard. There were two remaining buildings from Sanquhar’s former ‘lemonade’ factory of the 1890s, or Sharps Aerated Water Company. Work began on repairing and repurposing the brick built factory to open as MERZ Gallery. In 2011 MERZ Gallery opened with David Rushton‘s exhibition... Read More
Janice Horne : Kolaj Artist Workshop
Janice Horne arrived at MERZ for a week’s collage workshop with the Kolaj Institute. Titled ‘Passing Place’ three groups of ten artists have been exploring place and community identity in and around Sanquhar.
Three Collage Artist Residencies in Scotland : 6-28 April 2023
MERZ will be hosting the Kolaj Institute’s three week-long residencies throughout April. Following a successful collage residency programme September 2022, April we’ll see thirty artists on week-long workshops exploring local folklore and tradition. Last September we also celebrated the second anniversary of the Schwitters’ Army exhibition at MERZ. Coordinated by Ric Kasini Kadour the... Read More
Untitled (2022) MERZ film in Festivals
In December the MERZ animation Untitled (2022) was one of fifty films screened at the European Short Film Festival in Berlin. On 25th February Untitled (2022) will be one of ten films screened at the Osprey Short Film Awards in Keswick. The animation, with puppets and shadow figures imagines Kurt Schwitters‘ memories during his final... Read More
Sanquhar Pottery Project
Kristin Powers has joined MERZ for a couple of months to assist refining the local clay. For this year’s Sanquhar Arts Festival at the end of May MERZ will be showing the results of experiments to improve the local clay for making ceramics and pots. For many years the local clay was used for bricks,... Read More
Jane Frere : Building the Ark
MERZ made a visit to Jane Frere‘s studio with artist Olga Lapteva and designer Anna Seisian from Ukraine. We encountered Jane’s ‘elephant in the room’ created especially for COP26. We were talking about war: all wars. The average west-world human contributes ten tons of CO2e per capita per annum into the atmosphere. If we are... Read More
Ginny Krueger : a wee locket
Ginny Krueger is the November artist in residence at MERZ. When travelling Ginny works with inks while at home in the US she focuses on encaustic, a mixture of beeswax, resin and pigment. Ginny will be exhibiting her work at MERZ on 3rd December under the title ‘a wee locket’.
Hsin-Yu Chen : MERZ media consultant
Hsin-Yu recently graduated from the University of Portsmouth. As part of her stay at MERZ Hsin-Yu has been devising marketing strategies to interest Mandarin speaking graduates in the UK. Following their education overseas students are able to stay in the UK for up to two years and Hsin-Yu has highlighted the opportunities residencies offer for... Read More
Jane Frere : 10 years of Summerhall model
Jane Frere introduces the elements of her ’10 years’ model which due to Covid was not shown at Summerhall. MERZ is hoping to show the model at the Museum of Model Art sometime in 2023.
Cat Robertson : Artist in Residence at Merz Elterwater, during KS75
During the Summer of 2022 Catriona Robertson was artist in residence at Merz in Elterwater. In 2019 Cat had been the first artist in residence at MERZ in Sanquhar, in a project supported by Creative Scotland. Here Cat introduces her recent residency work responding to both the devastating winds that caused much damage at Merz... Read More