Making Space – Artist led Urban Parks

Leah Moodie
Leah Moodie
Louise Hopkins
Louise Hopkins
Dave Sowerby (Rider kriss Kyle)
Dave Sowerby (Rider kriss Kyle)
Beth Shapeero
Beth Shapeero
Paul Stallan
Paul Stallan
Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
Jonathan Atkinson
Jonathan Atkinson
Neil Davidson
Neil Davidson
Jemima Dansey Wright
Jemima Dansey Wright
Kerr Melville
Kerr Melville

Making Space – Artist led Urban Parks is a creative partnership between Jack Arts Scotland and Glasgow Urban Sports that focuses on artist led spaces and the collaborative working process. The projects aim is to place commissioned artworks and artist posters directly into the urban realm, on poster sites across the city, creating opportunities for a wide public audience to encounter artwork in everyday settings and situations.

Commissions from a wide range of Glasgow based creatives including emerging and established artists, photographers, architects and designers. The first round of commissions includes: Leah Moodie, David Sowerby, Jemima Dansey Wright, Paul Stallan, Beth Shapeero, Paul Thompson, Lousie Hopkins, Kerr Melville and Neil Davidson. Artist biographies for each are presented below.

Leah Moodie b.1999
Leah Moodie is a 2021 painting graduate of the Edinburgh College of Art. Originally from the Orkney Islands she now lives and works in Glasgow. Moodie paints in order to navigate her feelings, by contrasting realism with painterly mark making, Moodie is both the creator of and participant in her quiet yet resonant dramas. Moodie is a winner of the ECA’s Astaire Art Prize and has had work exhibited at Edinburgh’s Hidden Door Festival, the Pier Arts Centre and digitally shown at the Tate Britain. Moodie is a recognised figure within Scottish skateboarding, sponsored by Treatment – Glasgow’s newly established independent Skateboard company – and Focus skate shop.
leahmoodie.com
Louise Hopkins b.1965
“The drawings are all about the mechanically printed grid – I love finding things in there – rhythms, networks, the over-controller, the measure of time and space. For many years I made drawings strictly within the bare bones of the grid, but something burst open – the winter branch before the leaf, then the foliated tree.” Louise Hopkins is a renowned painter and resident on Glasgow’s southside.
louisehopkins.com
Dave Sowerby b.1977
Established photographer and BMX rider, living and working in Glasgow. Riding BMX since the 90s, Dave's creativity and passion for the sport initially led him into skatepark design with Edinburgh's Saughton skatepark being amongst his achievements. Dave now works as a videographer, photographer and graphic designer for one of the worlds leading BMX brands, BSD, based in Glasgow.
bsdforever.com
Beth Shapeero b.1985
Artist living and working in Glasgow. Beth Shapeero’s solo practice is rooted in abstraction and she works across different mediums including printmaking, painting, and installation. Her work often involves people and strives to promote connection through art practice.
bethshapeero.com
Paul Stallan b.1967
‘As a counter to the dislocation I experienced growing up in urban Glasgow, I have been driven to value the art of place. My lived experience has encouraged me to posit a vernacular and civic architecture that celebrates our ‘here’, our ‘genius loci’ our situation, through art.’ Paul Stallan RSA (Elect) has an independent arts practice borne from his architectural process. He is the design principal of Stallan-Brand and has received awards including Architect of the Year; the RSA Gold Medal for Architecture; and international, RIBA and RIAS design awards.
stallanbrand.com
Paul Thompson b.1976
Musician and comic book artist, lives and works in Glasgow. Paul Thomson aka Pabs Debussy is a Glasgow based artist and musician. A founding member of Franz Ferdinand, he now divides his time between comic book art, numerous underground bands (including Lung Leg, The Yummy Fur, Free Love) and musical endeavours.
Instagram @pabsdebussy
Jonathan Atkinson b.1995
Emerging artist and skateboarder, lives and works on the southside of Glasgow. Know as Jono, he produces digital animation stills on his phone.
Neil Davidson b.1969
“ItsNotJustConcrete is an aerial study of the concrete skateparks of Scotland. The project began as an attempt to list and document the numerous parks scattered across Scotland, as the project progressed I became more interested in how the parks sit in the landscape, the shapes they form and how they have weathered through time. I want the pictures to almost be an archeological document, as if we are searching for fragments or clues as to what is going on here.” Neil Davidson was born and raised in Glasgow, for over 20 years he pursued a career as a stills photographer in film and television. ItsNotJustConcrete might be considered a personal response to quitting professional photography.
Instagram @itsnotjustconcrete
Jemima Dansey Wright b.1983
Jemima Dansey Wright is a maker and designer who specialises in printed wearable textiles. "I have developed a making process that blends traditional craft methods such a block and mono printing with digital and screen print techniques, I aim to preserve the spontaneous informal and tactile quality of thehand painted and hand-printed motif. Using lively, informal block-cutting and misalignment to create printed records of the physical making experience."
Instagram @jemimadanseyw
Kerr Melville b.1994
Kerr Melville shoots directly onto 35mm film and is focused on emerging skateboard talent and the recent uptake of skateboarding amongst girls in Scotland, with a particular focus on Glasgow. He has documented the skateboard communities responsible for the DIY re-appropriation of found derelict spaces within the city and has been the subject of a recent documentary titled Valley Boy. ‘I take skateboarding photographs around Scotland to help to document as much of the varied skateboarding scene as I can. Skateboarding's been a huge part of my life since 1990 and hopefully forever will...’
Instagram @artofthevalleyboy

The Making Space creative partnership has grown out of ongoing dialogue around community and artist-led urban parks and the repurposing of under-utilised or vacant spaces existing within the city.

The initial starting point for this dialogue was the Devon Street Urban Park proposal and Glasgow Urban Sports’ anticipated series of public artworks commissions within the park. The first example of this approach to commissioning public artwork is the citywide series of artist billposter realised with support from and through the creative partnership with Jack Arts Scotland.

Glasgow Urban Sports would like to acknowledge the generous support from Jack Arts Scotland and the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation to realise this series of artist poster commissions.