Edinburgh Art Fair 2025: 'hundreds of works you can’t see anywhere else in Scotland'

The Art Fair, which happens annually at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange (formerly O2 Academy), celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, having hosted hundreds of artists and galleries over the last two decades, and welcomed over 250,000 visitors. The programme aims to combine tried-and-tested features with the presentation of thousands of new, original artworks.

Organiser Andy McDougall, who launched the Fair in 2005, says: “You will be able to see a lot of art you won’t see on the high street. We have galleries coming from all over the UK and all over the world. The Kim Mi Hyo Gallery from South Korea, for example, is back this year for the fourth time and this is the only place she shows in the UK.”

Art on show ranges from top Scottish painter Peter Howson to Edinburgh graffiti artist Sleek, bespoke glass by Leicestershire-based gallery A Heart of Glass, metalwork from Keltyneyburn Smithy, Perthshire, and the latest in printmaking from North London Printmakers.

Galleries featuring international art include Bodumas from the Maldives, Hisae Taki from Japan and Bibianna African Art, based in Manchester. The exhibitions are complemented by a programme of talks and demonstrations, activities for children, short films and charity fundraisers.

McDougall says: “Our motto is ‘Art for Everyone’. We’re family friendly, so spend a day with us, bring the kids and they can paint at our Open Easels while you go to a talk or demonstration, look at the art, meet people. The whole thing is about bringing people together, sharing our love of art and culture.”

This year, the Fair will have a new feature, the Agora, named after the public gathering space in Athens, appropriately a place of both commerce and conversation. “The Greek concept is about people getting together to discuss art, culture, politics,” says McDougall. “Community is particularly important, especially at this time in our world's history. Maybe we have nothing in common other than our love of art, but that’s enough.”

Fifteen of the Fair’s exhibitors have created art works on the theme of community for the Agora space. These range widely from Robert Myers’ painting of Leak Street (City Lines Collective), a tunnel under London’s Waterloo Station which is a gathering place for graffiti artists, to a sculpted clay vessel by Aberdeen-based Maria Muruaga which, she says, captures the moment “where individual reflection meets communal resonance”.

Sabina Nealon’s abstract painting inspired by the rooftops of Anatolia (Jim Woodman Fine Art) is also a picture of community, “a visual tapestry where every roof represents a different family”, while Pakistani-Scottish artist Sadia Gul Ibrahim (Sadia Gul Art) presents a work inspired by Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, “a spiritual, social and cultural gathering place”.

Of course, all the art is for sale, but the Fair aims to make art accessible to the wallet too. Prices ranging from £100 to £50,000 make it a good place to dip a toe in the water if you’re thinking of starting to collect.

McDougall says: “People only hear about paintings selling at auction for £50 million, they don’t hear about Mrs Jones buying a nice picture for £300 that she looks at every day and loves.

“We have valuable pictures that collectors can buy, but we also have original pieces for £100. Why buy a print of something when you can have an original work for £100, and there won’t be any risk that your neighbour has the same thing?”

Edinburgh Art Fair 2025 is at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange (formerly O2 Academy), 19-21 September, 11am-6pm, with a preview evening and drinks reception on 18 September, 6.30-9.30pm. More information and tickets at www.artedinburgh.com

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EDINBURGH ART FAIR 2025: HIGHLIGHTS

Live Painting Alexander Miller, who has built up a huge following for his paintings of men in flat caps and women in headscarves, will not only exhibit at Edinburgh Art Fair, he will also be creating a painting live on 19 and 21 September, from 1pm - 2pm. Other artists giving talks and demonstrations at the Fair include printmaker Laura Gressani, painter Reggie Baxter, textile artist Katy Rundle, and Isle of Mull-based artist Aska Marzec.

Bad Poetry, Good Cause Dunfermline-based painter Charles Nasmyth was part of the first Edinburgh Art Fair in 2005, exhibiting his work about “Scotland’s worst poet” William McGonagall. He is back for the 20th anniversary with a major new painting, The Strange and Divisive Genius of William McGonagall, featuring a panoply of characters from McGonagall himself to Professor McGonagall from the Harry Potter stories, Donald Trump and Dennis the Menace. It will be sold by blind auction to raise fund for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

Immersive Experiences Edinburgh-based artist Trevor Jones will present an immersive installation centred on his monumental triptych, Titanium Angel. Jones has pioneered working at the intersection of fine art and emerging technology, from NFT drops to augmented reality (AR). The triptych, which began life as a painting, now incorporates AR, interactive digital animation and immersive projection, which gives viewers the opportunity to place themselves within the painting and experience it as a film. He will give a talk about his work on 20 September at 1.30pm.

A Very Special Tapestry Artist and designer Andrew Crummy, who helped create The Great Tapestry of Scotland and The Diaspora Tapestry, is back at the Art Fair to present the first seven panels of his Cancer Tapestry. A cancer survivor himself, Crummy aims to create a multi-panel tapestry that will show 1,000 stories of cancer, celebrating medical advances, caring professionals and the human experience of the disease. He will give a talk, and there will also be a stitching workshop.

New Talent Supporting emerging artists has been part of Edinburgh Art Fair’s philosophy since the beginning. Selected from this year’s Degree Show at Edinburgh College of Art, graduates Eleanor Gadd and Hattie Quigley have been given the opportunity to exhibit their work at the Art Fair. Gadd’s installation The Funeral is a group of huge suspended masks which visitors can stand inside to eavesdrop on conversations at a funeral. Quigley’s large-scale paintings explore femininity, food and female desire with an aesthetic that celebrates gluttony and excess.

This feature was produced in association with Edinburgh Art Fair