Third Hand - Autonomous Art From Scottish Prisons

This exhibition aims to present powerful works of art created by prisoners making art for the first time in Scottish prisons. Importantly, alongside individual paintings, the exhibition features artworks created by collective groups of artists working in a collaborative process. We hope the works of art on display will interest a wide audience due to their unselfconscious experimental approach, and the honesty of their engagement with subject matter and formal technique.

These images may challenge the current orthodoxies of the art world and ask the audience to discard previous categories attached to amateur art, such as ‘naïve art’ and ‘outsider art’. The artworks have been produced by prisoners who may never have taken up visual art before, working from accessible art studios run by New College Lanarkshire (NCL), in their learning centres in Scottish prisons. The exhibition will be supported by workshops and discussions in CCA focussing on the issues it raises.

Part of Glasgow International.