VISUAL ARTS

Philip Reeves, The Glasgow Print Studio, 22 King Street, Glasgow (0141-552 0704) to 8 March

With Richard Ingleby
Saturday 01 February 1997 00:02 GMT
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The Glasgow Print Studio has been at the centre of the Scottish art scene since it first opened in 1962. This year marks its quarter century and the birthday celebrations got under way last night with an exhibition of 25 years of printmaking by Philip Reeves, one of their original founders.

Reeves is not a Scotsman; he was born in Cheltenham and trained at the Royal College in London, but he has done as much for art in Glasgow in the last 25 years than any Glaswegian I can think of. For many years he was head of the printmaking department at Glasgow School of Art, and like so many teachers who give their energy to nurturing the careers of others, his own work has remained less well known than it deserves to be.

He is essentially a landscape artist who turns what he sees into an almost abstract image. He works by a process of reduction, of isolating the essential ingredient of his subject, distilling it down and rebuilding the image around it. The result is a very subtle sort of art that works very slowly on the brain. They are contemplative images, lingering and very satisfying.

The Glasgow Print Studio deserves congratulations on its 25th birthday and even more so for using the occasion to honour Reeves. He retired from teaching a couple of years ago and, on the evidence of his most recent work, he's going from strength to strength.

EYE ON THE NEW

Merlin James isn't quite sure if he's a painter who works as a critic, or a critic who paints, but he's one of the few prepared to stick their necks out in both directions. His latest exhibition, Critical Pictures, is at Francis Graham-Dixon, 17 Great Sutton Street, London EC1, to 8 March

AND... riding on the success of Howard Hodgkin's Hayward show comes a selling show of prints from the 1960s to the 1990s. Prices start at pounds 500. Wiseman Originals, 34 West Square, London SE11 (0171-587 0747) to 26 Mar

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