From offshore supply vessels to wind farms, seven artists trace Aberdeen’s energy sector
When: 30 March 2026 - 14 March 2027
Where: Aberdeen Art Gallery, Schoolhill.
Tickets: Free admission
Aberdeen Art Gallery’s latest works-on-paper display brings together seven artists whose practice has taken them close to the infrastructure of the energy industry. Prints, photographs and drawings spanning the 1970s to the present come from the gallery’s collection of more than 13,000 works on paper, part of an annual programme that brings stored works into the gallery.
Into restricted territory
Sue Jane Taylor, a Gray’s School of Art graduate, spent years gaining access to remote offshore installations that are off-limits to the public, documenting the people and technology of the UK offshore energy industry. Her working drawings for the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project are among the works on display. Taylor, along with Kate Steenhauer and Kate Downie, discusses her work on the free Bloomberg Connects digital guide, available at bloombergconnects.com.
Kate Steenhauer came to Aberdeen from the Netherlands for a PhD in coastal engineering. Her etchings look at the methods of transporting workers, supplies and equipment to offshore oil and gas installations.
The Downie commission
Funded by the National Fund for Acquisitions and the Aberdeen Art Gallery Trusts, a new large-scale charcoal drawing by Kate Downie RSA is also in the display. Titled Feng Shui, literally “wind-water,” it places Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm above the Donside Hydro, with further scenes from testing at the Wind Campus at Altens. Downie was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 2008, with a practice spanning 45 years.
“Art and Energy highlights our commitment to collecting artworks and objects that tell the story of Aberdeen as an energy city,” said Lead Curator Shona Elliott.
