Professor Keith McIntyre

Interim Director Centre for Island Creativity content

Interim Director Centre for Island Creativity

Keith McIntyre is a visual artist based in the Outer Hebrides. A graduate of DJCA Dundee he taught at the Glasgow School of Art before moving to Northumbria University where he was Head of the Department of Arts up to 2018.

McIntyre has had numerous solo exhibitions going back to the 369 in Edinburgh; Tramway Glasgow at the opening of Glasgow 1990 European City of Culture; Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery; MIMA in Middlesbrough; RAAB Galerie in Berlin + London; Christian Dam in Copenhagen and Galerie Habana in Cuba. His drawings, paintings and prints are represented in numerous public and private collections. He also has a considerable profile as an artist working in collaborative theatre, performing arts + film projects.

Research Interests

The theme of ‘The Immortal Memory’ as a vehicle for narratological speculation has been driving much of the research over the past 10 years. As with the polemical eulogy in the Burns supper, concepts that were meaningful in the past are translated with a new resonance and potency for the present and the future. Drawing is fundamental to the practice. The potential of large-scale ink on paper drawing offers a vehicle to analyse and interrogate subjects with greater scrutiny. These works can be exhibited as pieces in their own right or become the catalyst for improvisation workshops where constructed narratives emerge out of a larking process.

In a number of projects the visual imaginations in the drawings are transcribed into collaborative work in theatre, dance, film and sound collaborations.

As a printmaker, the notion of immortalising and synergising the drawing, photography and performance elements into one image remains a vital outcome. Paper becomes not only the support for the image, but a material form that engages the audience as an idea in itself.

Academic responsibilities

Interim Director Centre for Island Creativity
Chair, Knowledge Exchange Creative Economy Group

Project Outputs

Exhibitions include ‘Vigorous Imagination’ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; ‘Lion Rampant’ Artspace San Francisco; ‘HIBRIDA II Brno Museum of Contemporary Art, Czech Republic; Ten International Printmakers’ Jvaskyla Museum of Art, Finland.

McIntyre has extensive experience as an art director on a number of theatre/performance projects including ‘Anna Campbell’ Traverse; ‘Requiem for Lockerbie’ Edinburgh International Festival; ‘Jock Tamsons Bairns’ Tramway, Glasgow; ‘Legend of St Julian’ Munich Arts Festival; ‘Mfalme Juha’ Parapanda Arts Lab Tanzania, all with Communicado; ‘Heid’ and ‘Life Stories Dreams’ with Sounds of Progress Glasgow + NTS; ‘New Constellations’ BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art; ‘MACBETH - Kill Bill Shakespeare’ with Malachi Bogdanov, Wales Theatre Co; ‘The Unconquered’ Off Broadway Festival New York, Stellar Quines.

Film projects include ‘Walk Me Home’ with John Berger and Timothy Neat; ‘The Savage’ with writer David Almond and actor Kevin Whately; and, ‘Moyllee Yn Burroo’ with Andy Mackinnon

Publications/catalogues include

Norman Cornish, Behind the Scenes, Keith McIntyre, NCL, 2017

Northern Stage Design, Keith McIntyre / Neil Murray, Gallery North, 2010

Year One Baltic Yearbook The Ubiquitous B, K.McIntyre, BALTIC, 2003

Non-Toxic Intaglio Printmaking, K.Howard, Printmaking Resources, 1998

Revolving Culture; Notes from the Scottish Republic, A.Calder, IB Taurus, 1994

Contemporary Painting in Scotland, B. Hare, Craftsman House, 1992

Keith McIntyre: The Paintings for Jock Tamsons Bairns, T. Neat, RAAB Gallery Berlin/London, 1990

The Vigorous Imagination, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1987

External activity

Elected to the Royal Scottish Academy 2019
Chair of Trustees, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Art Gallery