Watercolours at the RSA, Edinburgh

There’s an all-new Turner in January show for 2025, which is the artist’s 250th anniversary, as Scotland exchanges – for one year only – their Vaughan Bequest Turner watercolours with those given to the National Gallery of Ireland (RSA Building, 1-31 January, free). While you’re enjoying these, you can also explore a showcase of more than 300 paintings drawn from the best contemporary work in watercolour and water-based media in the 144th Open Annual Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSA Upper Galleries, 11 January-5 February, free)

Bet Low: An Island on Your Doorstep, Reid Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, 11 January – 8 February and Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, 1 March – 7 June, both free.

There has been a resurgence of interest in the work of Scottish artist Bet Low since several of her paintings were included in Karla Black’s exhibition at Inverleith House in 2010. Low, a contemporary of Joan Eardley at Glasgow School of Art, painted figurative works capturing post-war Glasgow and its people in a style influenced by the German expressionists before moving into abstraction, with paintings often inspired by the landscapes and seascapes of Orkney.

Wings of a Butterfly, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, 1 February – 19 April, free.

Ingleby starts the year with an innovative group show centring on French painter Pierre Bonnard, who wrote in his diary just before his death in 1947: “I should like to present myself to the young painters of the year 2000 with the wings of a butterfly”. Contemporary painters, including Andrew Cranston, Chantal Joffe and Hayley Barker explore how Bonnard speaks to them in the 21st century. The show also includes Philadelphia-based Aubrey Levinthal, who will have her first major UK show at the gallery in the summer (28 June – 28 August)

The Scottish Colourists: Radical Perspectives, 7 February – 28 June, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, tickets £12 (£10.50 concession).

This landmark Scottish Colourists exhibition, created in collaboration with the Fleming Collection, presents the work of Peploe, Fergusson, Hunter and Cadell alongside their British and European contemporaries for the first time. The exhibition shines a fresh light on the Colourists, who forged their radical style in the decade before the outbreak of the First World War. Their paintings are shown here seen alongside the work of Matisse, Derain, Duncan and Vanessa Bell, Augustus John and others.

Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, Dundee Contemporary Arts, 19 April – 13 July, free.

Curated by Hettie Judah for Hayward Touring, this exhibition earned a five-star review from Laura Cumming in the Observer who described it as “riveting from first to last”. The show arrives in Dundee this spring after outings in Bristol and Sheffield. Featuring more than 60 modern and contemporary women artists including Paula Rego, Chantal Joffe, Caroline Walker and Susan Hiller, it explores the subject of motherhood in all its creativity and complexity.

Jonathan Baldock, Jupiter Artland, 10 May – 28 September, included with ticket to the sculpture park.

London-based Jonathan Baldock works across sculpture, installation and performance, using clay, wood, metal and textiles such as linen, hessian and wool. He has an interest in myth and folklore as well as a taste for the macabre and a strong vein of wit. A new commission by Baldock in the Ballroom for the summer will be accompanied by earlier work at the Steadings Gallery until July. Thereafter, a new film by Guy Oliver – an artist with his own blend of social critique and dark humour – will move into the Steadings space (7 August – 28 September).

John Bellany: A Life in Self Portraiture, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 31 May – 28 September, Tickets £8 (£6 concession).

A major show of John Bellany’s work in Scotland feels long overdue 11 years after the artist’s death. This major summer exhibition at the City Art Centre focuses on self portraiture, which was an enduring theme throughout his long and colourful career. The show brings together more than 80 paintings, drawings and prints, from fantasy and allegory to the clear-eyed self-portraits made as his life hung in the balance at the time of his liver transplant. Open Eye Gallery will also stage a selling show of Bellany’s work in spring (4 – 26 April).

Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years, National Galleries of Scotland: RSA Building, 26 July until 2 November 2025, tickets £5-£19.

The big summer show at National Galleries of Scotland celebrates the 50-year career (so far) of Andy Goldsworthy, best-known for his sculptural works made from natural materials such as flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow and stone. While his works are often ephemeral, captured only in photographs, he has also made permanent sculptures all over the world, and plans to make several major new works for this show. Rumour has it the floor is being strengthened – we wait with bated breath to see what for.

IKEA: Magical Patterns, 25 July 2025 – 17 January 2026, Dovecot Studios, ticketed, prices TBC.

It’s possible the single biggest force in influencing domestic design in the last 50 years is IKEA. Since the 1960s, long before it arrived in the UK, the Swedish giant has been a nursery for experimental artists and designers, especially when it comes to fabrics and pattern design. This exhibition, created in partnership with the IKEA Museum (yes, it has one) looks at the rich history of its textiles, and its collaboration with 10-gruppen, a Swedish design collective founded in 1971, which helped put Swedish design on the map around the world.

Claire Barclay, Glasgow Print Studio, 8 August – 27 September, free.

The Scottish artist Claire Barclay was using craft techniques in her sculptural practice long before it became ubiquitous, and her work is always worth seeing due to her canny eye and careful attention to materials. Printmaking is another enduring element of her work, and this solo show promises to explore how the same values come through across her oeuvre, even as she moves between large-scale sculptures in metal, wood and textiles and delicate prints on paper.