About…
Rowan Ormiston is a Scottish artist, and a recent painting and printmaking graduate of the Glasgow School of Art. Their work is an ongoing exploration into the visualisation of Scottish mythology and folklore and investigates what they believe to be a loss of narrative and representation for Scotland’s ancestral beliefs and stories. Interested in how Scottish society may have developed differently had monotheist belief not taken over, and rather local belief encouraged rather than persecuted, their work aims to question our connection to the landscape, the portrayal and position of women throughout Scottish society and our respect for the land and its history. Through a multitude of mediums and approaches they attempt to consider the vast visual archive that never became and to begin to scratch the surface of what could be, if Scottish mythology and folklore became part of the norm again and a respected facet of belief within Scotland.
‘Stories matter, you see. They’re not just entertainment – stories matter because humans are narrative creatures. It’s not simply that we like to tell stories, and to listen to them: it’s that narrative is hard-wired into us. It’s a function of our biology, and the way our brains evolved over time. We make sense of the world and fashion our identities through the sharing and passing on of our stories. And so the stories that we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it, shape not just our own lives, but the world around us. The cultural narrative is the culture.’.
Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted p.13
Exhibitions
April 2018 – 2022 Exhibitor, The Shetland Gallery, Shetland, Scotland
April 2020 Rabbit Skin, Glue Factory, Glasgow, Scotland
December 2020 The Scottish Portrait Awards, Online
July 2021 The Aletrnative Degree Show Festival, South Block, Glasgow, Scotland
August 2021 The Night Voyage, Online
November 2021 Wunderkammer, Transmission, Glasgow, Scotland https://wunderkammer-exhibition.com/
April 2022 Fragments, the Old Haa, Shetland, Scotland
December 2022 - Exhibitor, Sun Gallery, Newburgh, Fife, Scotland https://sungallery.co.uk/index.html
April 2023 - Exhibitor, Ormus, Aberdour, Fife, Scotland https://www.shop-ormus.co.uk/
4th - 9th August 2023 The Quarantine Canvas, Stories from Isolation, New Glasgow Society, Glasgow, Scotland