Image: National Gallery Of Scotland, Edinburgh
The National Galleries of Scotland is featuring in this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival with a cluster of exhibitions and related programming that includes Catherine Opie’s 'To Be Seen' and Gwen John’s 'Strange Beauties'. In a newsletter to supporters, the institution said it is part of more than 70 events across the festival, which runs across 40 venues in the city. The festival itself describes its 2026 edition as the UK’s largest annual festival of visual art, taking place from 14 to 30 August.
Alongside Opie and Gwen John, the National Galleries of Scotland is also highlighting Wendy McMurdo: 'The Digital Mirror' and 'Scotland’s Collection' at Modern One as part of its contribution to the festival. The festival’s own site frames the programme around “hidden histories,” transformed venues and radical artistic voices, with alternative perspectives presented across Edinburgh through galleries and community spaces.
Catherine Opie’s work is also set to appear in the festival’s live events strand. The Edinburgh International Book Festival is hosting 'Catherine Opie, Del LaGrace Volcano & Gemma Rolls-Bentley: Radical Imagery' on 15 August, with the event scheduled for 3.45pm to 4.45pm at the Spiegeltent. The listing says Gemma Rolls-Bentley has been added to the event, and describes the discussion as bringing together Opie and Del LaGrace Volcano, whose exhibition 'Love Bites Back' is also part of EAF.
The book festival description says this conversation will focus on the artists’ portrayal of often invisible communities. It identifies Opie’s 'To Be Seen' as an exhibition of nearly 80 portraits of people commonly missing from mainstream art history, and describes Volcano’s project as dyke photography. The event is listed as captioned and open to ticket holders through the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The National Galleries of Scotland newsletter situates the festival participation within a wider August programme that also includes the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It directs visitors to book exhibition visits alongside Fringe tickets for 'To Be Seen' and 'Strange Beauties', and notes that other public-facing activities are taking place at its sites during the month.
One of those is 'Coco’s Art History Comedy Highlights Tour', described by the Fringe as a fast-paced, interactive romp through the National Galleries of Scotland. The Fringe listing says the show is presented by Max Norman, 5 Foot Entertainment and National Galleries of Scotland, and that it won the Adelaide Fringe Best Interactive Award in 2026. The National Galleries newsletter also points to the Tea Green Summer Market at the Portrait on 15 and 16 August, while noting that the National and Modern galleries, along with the Royal Scottish Academy building, will be closed on Sunday 16 August because of industrial action.
