James Cosgrove or Jimmy Cosgrove as he is more popularly known, is a Scottish artist and designer who was a member of staff before being appointed Deputy Director at Glasgow School of Art. He retired from academic life in 1999.
His current work in acrylic, collage and painting is based on international travel in general and people and places in the west of Scotland in particular – including Arran and Ayrshire.
He often collects textual and graphic observations in Moleskine city notebooks – text in the form of short narratives or poems also feature on postcards usually completed on location and posted home.
Works are often in series such as the Arizona suite where images have been made in Arizona, New Mexico and the Four Corners. The way of life, crafts and culture of the Hopi and Navajo native Americans had a profound effect on his work.
A regular exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute and the Paisley Art Institute, Cosgrove also exhibits widely in a number of commercial galleries.
He is a Director with the House for an Art Lover and has contributed to books on design, CR Mackintosh – and ART PARK Glasgow at Bellahouston Park, where he has a Sculpture fabricated in iron and steel titled; ‘Shipbuilding – Homage to those who made the Clyde great’.
Selected exhibition profile (pre-2000);
Glasgow Print Studio drawings, prints and sculpture - solo show 1980
Corners Gallery Glasgow - Mayfest solo show
Smith Bienniel (Stirling)
Paisley Drawing Bienniel (prizewinner)
Glasgow School of Art (various solo and mixed shows)
‘The Birds’ by Aristophenes - costume design for Riverside Studios (London)
‘Scottish Art since 1900’ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh)
‘Glasgow Parks’ - Mayfest - Compass Gallery (Glasgow)
‘Contemporary Scottish Art - Drawing’ - Fine Art Society (Edinburgh and London)
‘Glasgow Artists in Schweinfurt’ (Germany)
‘Glasgow Artists in Nurnberg’ (Germany’
‘GSA Artists in Moorhead and Duluth’ Minnesota USA
‘Glasgow Artists at Temple Gallery’ Philadelphia USA
‘The Compass Contribution’ at the Tramway (Glasgow)
Scottish Society of Artists (member)
‘25th Anniversary Glasgow Print Studio’ McLellan Galleries (Glasgow)
Selected recent exhibitions;
2003 Open Eye Gallery (Edinburgh) ‘Where Tracks Cross’ solo show
2003 Open Eye Gallery (Edinburgh) ‘East Meets West
2005 White House Gallery Kirkcudbright solo
2006 White House Gallery Kirkcudbright ‘Gael Force’
2006 House for an Art Lover (Glasgow) ‘Weather Fronts and Passing Time’
2006 Mac Gregor Fine Art (Glasgow)
2008 Billlcliffe Gallery (Glasgow) ‘ Small Pictures’
2008 MacDonald Fine Art (Kirkcudbright) solo
2009 Billcliffe (Postcards and other Small Works)
2009 Billcliffe Gallery ‘Land of the Mountain and the Flood’
2009 Maclauren Gallery (Ayr) ‘101Artists - Homecoming Scotland’
2009 Llewellyn Alexander (London)
2009 ‘Common Ground’ with Stuart MacKenzie - House for an Art Lover (Glasgow)
2010 ‘The Red House’ (Croftamie)
2011 ‘Flights of Fancy’ - McGill Duncan Gallery (Castle Douglas)
2011 ‘Ayrshire Artists’ - McGill Duncan Gallery (Castle Douglas)
2011 ‘Picturing Places - Eight View Points’ - House for an Art Lover (Glasgow)
2011 ‘Jungle City’ Botanic Gardens (Edinburgh) (for the Elephant Trust - London)
2011 on - various exhibitions at Billcliffe, Smithy and McGill Duncan etc
2018 House for an Art Lover -'Looking for Signs: Ideas and Imagined Circumstances'
Recent awards;
Gallery 68 award (Paisley Drawing Exhibition 2007)
Hargan Award (Paisley Art Institute 2010)
Mc Kinley Award (Royal Glasgow Institute 2010)
Membership - Paisley Art Institute (PAI 2011)
Marshall Award (Royal Scottish Society of Watercolour Artists 2012)
Membership - Royal Scottish Society of Watercolour Artists (RSW 2012)
Membership - Royal Glasgow Institute (RGI 2014)
Maude Gemmell Hutchinson Award (Royal Scottish Academy 2015)
Selected Publications;
3d Design for Schools (commissioned by the Design Council) ISBN-10 0850721830
‘House for an Art Lover’ ed & contributor ISBN
‘Speculative Architecture 2005’ author with contributions ISBN-10 0954873610
‘ART Works in the Park’ author with contributions ISBN - 10
the 1938 Empire Exhibition’ - contributor
‘Bellahouston, Govan and...Glasgow - a Heritage’ - contributor
‘Bodies of Work’ by Fraser Taylor; a guide to an exhibition curated by James Cosgrove - Studio Pavilion Bellahouston Glasgow 2015
