Born in Glasgow in 1961, Calum Colvin has exhibited his work nationally and internationally for over 30 years since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1985.
He was a winner of one of the first Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Awards from which he created the acclaimed exhibition for the SNPG ‘Ossian, Fragments of Ancient Poetry’ in 2001.
He was awarded an OBE the same year and is Professor of Fine Art Photography at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee. Colvin’s constructed photographic artworks begin as large-scale studio ‘stage-sets’, tableaux of everyday objects, furniture and bric-a-brac carefully posed and theatrically lit.
Viewed from the fixed-point perspective of a large-format camera, painted trompe-l’oeil elements are introduced, integrating object and subject in a complex mise en scene. These are finally photographed on film, digitized and printed onto paper or canvas.
His works have been widely exhibited in venues as diverse as Orkney, Los Angeles and Ecuador, and are represented in numerous collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Fine Art, Houston; The Tate Gallery, London and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.
1979-1983: Diploma in Sculpture, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee.
1983-1985: MA in Photography, Royal College of Art, London.
1985-1993: Lived and worked as artist in London.
1993-2001: Lecturer in Fine Art, University of Dundee.
1995-1996: Senior Research Fellow in Digital Imaging, University of Northumbria.
2001- present: Professor of Fine Art Photography, University of Dundee.
2018-present: Associate Dean of Research, University of Dundee.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1987-1990: ‘Calum Colvin’
Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington DC; Sander Gallery, New York; Friedman-Guinness Gallery, Heidelberg; Torch Gallery, Amsterdam; Richard Pomoroy Gallery, London; Seagate Gallery, Dundee; Salama Caro Gallery, London; Galeria 57, Madrid; Glenn/Dash Gallery, Los Angeles; California State University, Long Beach, California; Friedman-Guinness Gallery, Frankfurt; Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney; Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh.
1991: ’The Two Ways of Life’
Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary; Winnipeg Art Gallery; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe.
1993-2000: ’The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things’
Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh; Photographers Gallery, London; Photosynkyria, Thessalonki, Greece; Norwich Arts Centre; BM Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul; Banco Central Art Gallery, Quenca, Ecuador; British Council, Quito, Ecuador; Royal Photographic Society, Bath; Fotomuseum, Stadtmuseum, Munich; Seagate Gallery, Dundee; Photography Centre of Athens; Forum Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia; Varazdin Town Museum, Croatia; BM Contemporary Art Centre, Istanbul; Izfas Art Gallery, Ismir; State Fine Arts Gallery, Ankara; Encontros da Imagem, Braga, Portugal; Kawasaki City Museum, Japan; The Meffan Institute, Angus.
1996- 2000 ‘Pseudologica Fantastica’
Impressions Gallery, York; Focal Point Gallery, Southend -on –Sea; Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh; Theatr Clwyd, Mold, Wales; Centre Cultural Caixa de Terassa, Barcelona; University of Salamanca; Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville; Viewpoint Gallery, Salford, Manchester; Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery; Piece Hall Gallery, Halifax.
1998-2003: ‘Sacred and Profane’ View the gallery
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; National Machado de Castro Museum, Coimbra, Portugal; Martha Schneider Gallery, Chicago; Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen; Crawford Centre, St Andrews.
2002-2008: ‘Ossian, Fragments of Ancient Poetry’ View the gallery
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; Iona Gallery, Kingussie; Swanson Gallery, Thurso; An Tuireann, Skye; Timespan, Helmsdale; St Fergus Gallery, Wick; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery; Birnam Institute, Dunkeld; Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries; Festival de Musique de Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Beaulieu, France; UNESCO, Paris; Inverness County Centre for the Arts, Nova Scotia; University of Guelph, Canada.
2009: ‘Natural Magic’ View the gallery
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery; Swanson Gallery Thurso; St Fergus Gallery, Wick.
2014: ‘The Magic Box’
Edinburgh Printmakers 1/8/14-6/9/14.
2013/15: ‘Burnsiana’ View the gallery
Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Ayr; Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh: Dick Institute, Kilmarnock.
2015: ‘Jacobites by Name’ View the gallery
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery (2016); The Scottish Parliament (2017).
2016: ‘Ex Tenebris Lux’ University of Stirling.
2017: ‘Museography’ McManus Galleries, Dundee.
2020: ‘Constructed Worlds’ Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
2020: ‘Brexit Tears’ The Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh.