ABOUT
Craig Coulthard is an artist based in Fife, Scotland. His current work brings together landscape, archaeology, historical images and popular culture. Working through painting and printmaking, and through acts of copying, adaptation and juxtaposition, he draws on sources including Japanese woodblock prints, Pictish stones, Renaissance painting, music, poetry, comics and cinema. These borrowed images are placed within landscapes that hold personal or historical significance, creating unexpected conversations between different periods, places and forms of knowledge. People are often absent, but their presence remains embedded in the objects, images and marks they have left behind.
Earlier work has moved across public art, film, ceramics and textiles. Projects include Forest Pitch, in which a football pitch and pavilion were created within a commercial forest in the Scottish Borders as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and The Source of Eden, a film following the River Eden through the histories and associations gathered around its course. Coulthard also makes and releases music under the name Randan Discotheque. Across these different forms, his work remains concerned with landscape as a repository of memory, and with the strange ways that images, stories and objects survive, migrate and acquire new meanings.
WORK IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
“A Wrestling Match Between That Which Is Seen & That Which Is Felt”” - Government Art Collection
"The Source of Eden" & "Directions for the Creationist Canoeist (Parts I & II)"- Paisley Museum, Paisley (part funded by the Contemporary Arts Society)
“Under the Moon, One Thing I Crave”, “Term Lilt” & “Dinna Think Bonnie Lassie I’m Gaun to Leave You” all currently on loan to City of Glasgow College via the Sculpture Placement Group’s Sculpture Adoption Scheme
“Statues (Aren’t All Boring)” & “An Intrusion of Insubstantial Messages” - The Artists’ Book Collection Dundee (abcD), University of Dundee Museum Collections, Dundee
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 - “Literature & Fun Places” - Texture Gallery, Manchester
2022 - “By the Pricking of My Thumbs” - Air Micro Gallery, Altrincham
2022 - “Magical Thinking” - Sierra Metro, Edinburgh
2020 - 25th May 2020, Wooosh Gallery, Dundee
2017 - "This Is How I Copy, How Do You Copy?" - Screenlight Commission, Waterside Arts Centre, Sale
2014 - "The Drummer & the Drone" - Trinity Apse Edinburgh - Edinburgh Art Festival commission & part of GENERATION.
2009 - 2012 -"Forest Pitch" - Scottish commission (£460,000) for Artists' Taking the Lead, part of the London 2012 Festival & Cultural Olympiad. Funded by Creative Scotland Lottery Funding.
2012 - "Know Yr Grammar" - a 'Billboard for Edinburgh' commission, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh.
2010 - 'Selected Works 2004-2010' - Outbye Gallery, Pittenweem.
2008 - "Der Die Das" - Atelier Höherweg, Düsseldorf.
2008 - "Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead" - part of 'Did You Know For Instance?' Camden Arts Centre, London
2008 - "Yes May Be No" - part of 'Life is Interesting, When You are Furious', a Radar Project, Loughborough University, Loughborough
2006 - "Black, White & Shades of Grey" - part of 'Locus of the City', Magdalen Chapel, Edinburgh
2004 - "Memento Mori" - New Work Scotland commission, Collective gallery, Edinburgh
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS
2026 - “This 26” - Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2025 - “August Sundays #5” - Pipeline Contemporary, London
2025 - “Ring of Truth” - Blackie House Museum, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh (7th - 24th August)
2023 - “Mepaintsme Open Call Exhibition 2023” - online, mepaintsme.com
2023 - “Dusk Contemporary Art Festival” - Alentejo and Algarve regions, Portugal
2021 - “Bankley Open 2021” - Bankley Studios & Gallery, Levenshulme, Manchester
2020 - “No Borders” - Online exhibition created by ArtThou, raising funds for Maggies Centre’s
2019 - “Three Hours of Sunshine” - Dundee Biennial, Keiller Centre, Dundee
2018 - “Scottish Society of Artists Annual Exhibition” - Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2018 - "The Travelling Gallery at 40" - City Arts Centre, Edinburgh
2018 - "Shelter Stone - The Artist & the Mountain" - Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2018 - "Artists Who Make Music/Musicians Who Make Art" - Queens Park Railway Club, Glasgow (Curated by Ross Sinclair)
2017 - "Shelter Stone - The Artist & the Mountain" - Publication edited by Edward Summerton
2016 - "DCA Thomson" - Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee
2016 - "Abolish Trout (Craig Coulthard/Peter Donaldson/David Maclean)" - Lewisham Art House, London
2014 - "Billboard for Edinburgh" - Ingelby Gallery, Edinburgh
2014 - "Generation:TG" - Travelling Gallery
2013 - "Collective Auction" - Collective/Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh
2013 - "The Agent RIA:REGISTEREDINART" - Careof, Milan, Italy
2011 - "Solar" - Solar Pavilion, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh
2010 - "The Secret Confession" - Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
2007 - "Your Words & My Mouth" - Hospitalfield House, Arbroath
2007 - "Young Athenians" - 1st Athens Biennial, Athens, Greece
2006 - "Young Athenians" - Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2006 - "Unpacking My Library" - Flensburg University Library, Flensburg, Germany
2005 - "Bloomberg New Contemporaries" - Cornerhouse Manchester, Spike Island Bristol & Barbican London
2004 - "Amaryllis Sillyrama" - Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow
2003 - "Thunder in Paradise" - Switchspace, Project Rooms, Glasgow
2003 - "Win Together Lose Together Play Together Stay Together" - Temporary artist-run gallery, 28 Leven Street, Edinburgh
SELECTED AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS
2009 - Awarded £460,000 commission for 'Forest Pitch', Scotland's contribution to Artists' Taking the Lead, part of the London 2012 Festival and Cultural Olympiad. Funded by Creative Scotland
2006 - Wrote the song 'The Rebel's Complaint' for artist Ruth Ewan's award-winning East International 06 work.
2003 - 2006 - Joint founder, committee member and director of The Embassy, artist-run gallery in Edinburgh.
2003 - Joint founder member of artist group 'Win Together Lose Together Play Together Stay Together' Edinburgh
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art - Edinburgh College of Art (2004 - 2006)
Batchelor of Art - Edinburgh College of Art (1998 - 2002)
RESIDENCIES
2013 - One week self-directed residency at The Bothy Project, Inshriach, Aviemore
2012 - One week residency in Filignano, Molise, Italy.
2008 - Three month residency at Atelier Höherweg, Düsseldorf, Germany.
2007 - One week residency at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath
SELECTED TALKS & PRESENTATIONS
2014 - Taigh Chearsaghagh, Lochmaddy, Isle of North Uist
2014 - In conversation with Brigadeer David Allfrey MBE & Sorcha Carey, Trinity Apse, Edinburgh Art Festival
2013 - 'Parley Discussion: Tae Think Again, Rethinking Identity in Contemporary Scotland' - curated by Rachel Maclean, Edinburgh Art Festival
2012 - Atlas Arts, Portree, Isle of Skye
OTHER WORK
2017 - Wrote the preface for 'Michael Marra - Arrest This Moment' by James Robertson, published by Big Sky Publishing
2015 - Judge on panel choosing artists for Early Career Artists exhibition as part of Edinburgh Art Fesitval 2015
2014 - One day banner making workshop with 1st Year students, Lionacleit School, Isle of Benbecula
2013 - 6 week workshop with Primary 5 children, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
2006 - Curator of "I2XU" - Paul Carter solo exhibition, The Embassy, Edinburgh