I established Kilmorack Gallery in 1997 with an unfashionably elitist love of the best. At this time I had little money and slept on a hidden mattress upstairs in the gallery but this philosophy has worked well and people now travel hundreds of miles to visit and you’ll no longer find the odd dirty sock in our stores.
Over these thirteen years we’ve had many memorable exhibitions with incredible works. We’ve shown Gerald Laing’s 16’ high Anna Karina (1964) along with his weighty Hamburg Triptych. We’ve also shown Helen Denerley’s unforgettable wolf pack at the same times James Hawkins’ first large Triptych which took up the whole end wall of the gallery. Peter White’s amazingly geological heads, shown together with Lotte Glob’s books, managed to move myself as well as many others. I have always tried to push things to make them as good as possible and there have been many wonderful things shown – surreal, beautiful, large and small – too many to attempt to recall them here. 2010 should be one of our most interesting years yet for we are always bringing new artists on-board and re-hanging with new work every month in larger mixed exhibitions. There will also be two special exhibitions – an exhibition of new work by Henry Fraser and Kistie Cohen on April and a solo show of new work by Allan MacDonald in August.
The beautiful rural Old Kilmorack Church (1786) which houses the gallery is also note-worthy. This magnificent building was disused for over twenty-five years before we took it over, starting a trend for reusing old churches as galleries in the Highland.
tony davidson, gallery director
The Kilmorack Gallery near Beauly has won itself a strong reputation across Scotland’
The Press and Journal, March 2002
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‘One of the north of Scotland’s best kept secrets.’
‘ a top bloke’ ‘not like a normal gallery owner’
In the time Davidson has been running this space, he has displayed an unerring ability to root out new work by new, emerging and established artists.
Always worth making a journey for.
There is no gallery like it in Scotland
Jan Patience, The Herald, September 2007
Fans of Denerley’s animal sculpture should beat a path to Kilmorack
Roger Cox, The Scotsman, April 2009
The gallery was very interesting and everyone had a good time.
Culbokie primary school, primary six.
