The Scotsman

Scotsman art critics Susan Mansfield and Duncan Macmillan on the exhibitions to look out for in the New Year

Seher Shah, Glasgow Print Studio, 1 June until 29 July

Seher Shah is a distinguished Pakistani-American artist and printmaker. Trained originally as an architect, as a printmaker she has worked with etching, photogravure and woodcuts. She also makes sculpture in cast iron. In her art she reflects on the perspectives and geometry of modern architecture in what she calls "architectural abstraction” and indeed often with near abstract results. Photography is the base for this kind of imagery and for this she works collaboratively with architectural photographer Randhir Singh. Among her work is a magnificent set of prints that reflect poetically on the great historical sculpture of the Indian sub-continent. As a leading printmaker with an international reputation, she has enjoyed a long-time collaborative exchange with Glasgow Print Studio and one of the principal events in the Print Studio’s 2023 calendar will be a major exhibition of her prints. This will include a new suite of etchings titled Ruined Scores, made in the intaglio printmaking studio under the guidance of master printmaker Stuart Duffin. The artist says of this series of prints that it speaks to a “hermetic language in between architectural abstraction and music notations, but communicates neither in its entirety.”