Scott Lawrie Gallery – visual sunshine from Oceania

All artists are showing in Scotland for the first time, and come from Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands and New Zealand. The art originates from the Moana region in the Pacific Ocean.

The work of Andy Leleisi’uao (Samoa/NZ) brings to life the stories of his ancestral homeland through rich, comic-strip type narratives.

Sefton Rani’s Cook Islands heritage comes to the fore with his magnificent ‘painting without a frame’ called ‘Raumea and Te Uanuku’.

A beautiful Ngata ‘Uli (black tapa bark cloth) is the hallmark of NZ-based Tongan artist Kulimoe’anga ‘Stone’ Maka, which contrasts with the bristling vibrancy of a painting by young upstart Sean Hill (Samoa/NZ).

Linda Va’aelua (Samoa/Scotland) brings a touch of hand-made finesse to her hanging hessian paintings, and Dave Hill (Cook Islands) utilises found scrap wood to explore traditional mark making, while Niuen artist Marcus Hipa adds a touch of bold narrative lyricism to the show.

Samoan artist Raymond Sagapolutele graces the show with a moving photographic diptych entitled ‘Diaspronaut’ which focuses on themes of memory, displacement, and heritage.

For a ray of visual sunshine during our typical Scottish winter, this one could be hard to beat.

Scott Lawrie Gallery is in the marvellously named Chuckle Pend behind the Filmhouse. He originally set up in New Zealand in 2017 before coming to Edinburgh just last year.

  • Scott Lawrie Gallery 2 Chuckle Pend, EH3 8BG
  • Exhibition 16 January to 8 February 11-6pm Wednesday to Saturday. Opening on 16 January 5-7pm all welcome and a curator’s talk will take place on 8 February at noon.