An exhibition of new paintings, drawings and sculpture by the artist Colin Johnstone has just opened at the Pier Arts Centre following a busy exhibition preview sponsored by an Cnoc Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky.

The exhibition, entitled His Angry Ghost, is the first major show of the artist’s work to be held in Orkney.

Colin Johnstone was born in Motherwell in 1960 and has lived in Orkney for over twenty years.

He graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1982 and is part of a generation of artists who re-focussed and re-invigorated interest in Scottish art.

Neil Firth, Director of the Pier Arts Centre said “Colin is one of the most intriguing artists working in Orkney today. His work is always beautiful but always hints at an illusive story or narrative. As with last years Festival of Orkney Artists we are keen to support the work of local artists and are delighted to bring this major show of exciting new work to audiences in Orkney.

The mix of local, national and international work that is evident in the Centre’s collection and exhibitions was one of the factors that led to our nomination for the Art Fund Prize for the best museum or gallery in the country. We are up against very stiff opposition but it is great to be recognised in this way.”

As the title of the exhibition suggests the artist is interested in past occurrences, events or stories that re-emerge or are re-interpreted to influence the present.

Collected objects and texts provide a wellspring for the artworks. Through subtle and skilful re-forming these materials and ideas are re-invented to create richly-layered narratives and relationships.

Colin Johnstone commented “I am absolutely delighted to be showing in the re-furbished Pier Arts Centre. I’ve been involved with the Pier for many years and although this is my first one man show I already feel an intimate relationship with it.

I see my work as a return, over and over again, of new forms and images. To me it’s a reminder that ‘absence’ is not ‘loss’ and therefore doesn’t disappear but rather it reminds and remains.”

Throughout, meaning is revealed and obscured. Ideas are paired and set against one another: absence and presence; visual and literary; narrative and illustration.

This discipline extends to the crafting of the work itself the routine of thinking, painting, cutting and sticking belies the painstaking and meticulous processes undertaken.

Colin Johnstone has shown regularly at the Pier Arts Centre and in exhibitions across Orkney the UK and abroad. His Angry Ghost runs at the Pier Arts Centre, along with Oilwork by Sue Jane Taylor, until the 5th of April.