The Hunterian presents an exhibition of new work by artist Margaret Salmon
Published: 16 June 2025
The Hunterian is delighted to announce the launch of 'Assembly', a solo exhibition of new work by acclaimed artist-filmmaker Margaret Salmon.
Margaret Salmon: Assembly
27 June–19 October 2025
Hunterian Art Gallery
Free entry
Press view: Thursday, 26 June 2025, 10.00am—12.00pm
The Hunterian is delighted to announce the launch of Assembly, a solo exhibition of new work by acclaimed artist-filmmaker Margaret Salmon. Resulting from and reflecting upon a process of community outreach, story counselling and cinematic experimentation, the exhibition encompasses a film, photographs, and sculptures in an installation that will expand over time, inviting local audiences to return to The Hunterian’s galleries as materials shift and evolve.
An intimate enquiry made by a socially-committed, locally-engaged artist, Assembly highlights the voices of a diverse range of residents within the areas of Kelvinside and Maryhill, Glasgow. The exhibition, grounded in everyday Glasgow and its residents, asks: how have years of austerity and a global pandemic affected individuals and community in Glasgow? How has a mass collective loss affected that community’s understanding of death, healing and the future? Central to the exhibition is a long-form narrative film. The artist describes To a God Unknown as 'a feminist existential melodrama and ghost story', to be researched and filmed on 35mm during the exhibition throughout summer and autumn 2025.
Key collaborators on To a God Unknown include: G20 Works, Amma Birth Companions, Traceyann Campbell and Donna Maciocia (Camera Obscura) and Sacred Paws.
Margaret Salmon (b. 1975, New York) lives and works in Glasgow. Concerned with a shifting constellation of relations, such as those between camera and subject, human and animal, or autobiography and ethnography, Margaret Salmon’s work often examines the gendered, emotive dynamics of social interactions and representational forms. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at institutions including The Hunterian (forthcoming) Secession, (2023), DCA (2018/19), Tramway (2018), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA (2011), Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2007), Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2007). Her work has been featured in film festivals and major international survey exhibitions, including Yokohama Triennial (2024), British Art Show 9 (2021/22), Glasgow International (2021), Berlin Biennale (2010) and Venice Biennale (2007), London Film Festival (2018, 2016, 2014) and Open City Documentary Film Festival (2021,2024, 2025).
Dominic Paterson, Curator of Contemporary Art at The Hunterian said:
"Margaret Salmon’s work combines a commitment to artistic experimentation with a concern for socially and politically important themes. Her previous films have tackled subjects ranging from motherhood to the natural world, feminist economics, and the intimacy between couples. The Hunterian is delighted to be able to support the Assembly project, which brings Salmon’s lens to bear on topics close to home for the artist, in the Glasgow community she is a part of, and within her own lived experience.
Assembly will share the process of making an ambitious film work with our audiences in real time, gathering new material from Salmon’s work with local community participants into the various elements of the exhibition as it proceeds—literally assembling the participants and the resulting works over the exhibition’s duration.
Through film, photography and installation, Assembly will consider how individuals and communities find resilience in the face of economic and social inequality. At the same time, it responds to the practical challenges of making artist’s film with limited budgets, through DIY methods and collaborative practices."
Supported by the Hope Scott Trust and Assembly Supporters Circle.
For further information and images please contact:
Nicola Jeffs
nj@nicolajeffs.com
07794 694 754
Miriam Morris
mm@nicolajeffs.com
07763 520 003
Notes to Editors
The Hunterian Contemporary Art Programme
The oldest public museum in Scotland, with collections spanning arts, sciences and humanities, The Hunterian is at the forefront of university museums around the world. Since it opened at the University of Glasgow in 1807, The Hunterian has been an invaluable academic and community resource. It is committed to becoming a more meaningful place for more diverse audiences.
The Hunterian’s contemporary art programme responds to and interacts with The Hunterian collections, spaces and histories to make new connections and to reflect people, ideas and stories. The Hunterian collection’s historic foundation is a repository of knowledge that materialises the problematic history of Western society and its fundamentally colonial and capitalist underpinnings. Taking this as a point of departure and critical reflection, The Hunterian’s contemporary art programme seeks to interrogate the institution’s genealogy, and to introduce different perspectives into its spaces.
Working with a wide range of artists on acquisitions, commissions, exhibitions and events, our contemporary art programme allows The Hunterian to find new ways of using our historic collections to understand the contemporary world.
The Hunterian’s University context creates room for intellectual inquiry and a process of learning and experimentation. As one of the few purpose-built art galleries in Glasgow — a city renowned for its large art community—The Hunterian offers a space in which work by emerging local artists and more established international practitioners can be exhibited to wide and diverse audiences, enabling connection, reflection and experimentation.
Since 2017, The Hunterian has featured solo exhibitions by artists such as Neil Clements, Ilana Halperin, Alex Impey, Ulrike Ottinger, Elizabeth Price and Jimmy Robert. Group exhibitions have included works by, among others: Sarah Browne; Phil Collins; Tacita Dean; Manthia Diawara; Andrew Kerr; Nalini Malani; Jade Montserrat; Shahryar Nashat; Otobong Nkanga; Charlotte Prodger; Carol Rhodes; Margaret Salmon; Simon Starling; Corin Sworn.
Hunterian has also supported projects with John Gerrard (a major outdoor video installation for COP26), Elisabeth Schilling (a week of dance performances and a symposium in 2019). They have undertaken collaborations with other arts organisations, including The Common Guild, Goethe Institute Glasgow, Glasgow International, Film and Video Umbrella, Leeds Arts University, and the Roberts Institute of Art, all of which have brought benefits through co-funding and knowledge exchange.
The Hunterian have commissioned new works from artists including: Claire Barclay, Alex Impey, Neil Clements, Minty Donald & Nick Millar, Louise Hopkins, and Georgina Starr (in partnership with Art Fund, FVU and GI). We have received funding awards from VNXXCAS 2021, CAS Rapid Response Fund 2020, Art Fund Moving Image Fund for Museums (2018), Henry Moore Institute (2018), the Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy (2021).
Hunterian Art Gallery
82 Hillhead Street
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am–5pm
Free entry (charge for the Mackintosh House)
First published: 16 June 2025