Edinburgh Printmakers: Renowned Edinburgh art gallery supports refugee artists

Edinburgh Printmakers has welcomed the first refugee artists to the venue ahead of a brand new residency initiative to highlight their works.

The Capital’s renowned open access art studio, in Castle Mills, Dundee Street, is now leading a Europe-wide project called ‘In From The Margins’ in collaboration with four other arts organisations on the fringes of Europe, where each organisation provides dedicated residencies for artists from refugee backgrounds.

Six dedicated residencies will take place at Edinburgh Printmakers starting in May, with the final residency finishing in December.

Developing Yorkshire’s Studios of Sanctuary model, these residencies are designed to give opportunities to refugees and asylum-seeking artists and artists affected by forced migration, bringing their works into mainstream programming.

The resident artists at Edinburgh Printmakers

Edinburgh Printmakers' chief executive Janet Archer said: “We were delighted to get such a positive response to the call for artists for the In from the Margins programme and the selection process was extremely difficult.

“The artists chosen work in a range of disciplines and many are at different points in their artistic careers. We’re excited to welcome them to our studio and support their artistic journey in printmaking over the coming months.”

In total, 30 artists will take up residencies across all venues in 2022 – and the results will be exhibited in a group show at Edinburgh Printmakers in spring next year.

The artists selected by Edinburgh Printmakers include Aqsa Arif, a Scottish-Pakistani interdisciplinary artist based in Glasgow.

Her work incorporates the interdisciplinary mediums of poetry, printmaking, installation and film to construct complex structures in which she explores the surreal nature of the human psyche.

As a Pakistani refugee to Scotland, she has described her experience as a life with the split of two cultural identities.

Since graduating from the Glasgow School of Art in 2019, Aqsa has exhibited her work in Gallery of Modern Art, Jupiter Artland, Royal Scottish Academy and Tate Modern.

She said: “I am delighted to be selected for this residency because of its unique aim to support and empower artists who have experienced displacement. Having moved to Scotland as a refugee aged five, this displacement has been the largest source of psychological conflict in my life.

“I experienced life with the split of two cultural identities and this duality of belonging is a theme I explore in my own art practice. I’m looking forward to developing those ideas and learning new printmaking skills to integrate into my work.

“The supportive creative environment provided by this residency will allow me to directly engage with these issues and express my own experiences from a more vulnerable and conscious place.”

Other featured artists include Arafa and the Dirars, an artists’ collective based in Hull; Glasgow-based Syrian Mousa AlNana; Somali-born Najama Abukar, a Glasgow-based photographer; Iranian-born Paria Goodarzi; and British Iranian artist Zory Shahrokhi, who is based in London.

An engagement programme with refugees, schools and wider communities will be running alongside the residencies with the contribution refugees and migrant communities make to wider society celebrated through exchanges of their work, exhibitions and multi-disciplinary events.

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