Arusha Gallery shows an ever-changing programme of exhibitions in its Edinburgh space and associated galleries in the UK and abroad. Currently on show in Edinburgh are new works by Charlotte Keates, whose work is pictured below, Frida Wannerberger and Margaret R Thompson, whose work is pictured above.

New Mexico-based Margaret R Thompson’s paintings have a dream-like, serene and meditative quality, transcending the physical world and existing in some kind of ‘in between’ space. The works exude a mystic spirituality, allowing our minds to wander. Her work responds to books, music, personal rituals and symbols and a reverence for the natural world. Each piece is a tapestry of observations from daily life that she weaves into a story, inviting viewers to find their own tales within. Often painting outside in the New Mexico desert, she infuses her oil paintings, which feature figures, animals, moons, candlelight and shrines, with wax, sand, soil, mica, ash, spices and plant oils to embody the essence of the land.

Charlotte Keates’ work is inspired by interiors, travels, and architectural composition, in a seamless communion with elements from the natural world, with trees pushing through flat concrete, and perspectives unfolding in glass sheets, in images of modernist leisure leaving the viewer with the feeling of having entered a space only recently vacated, dramatising stillness without surrendering movement, and suggesting, technically as well as artistically, indistinct human activity and motion.

Swedish-born and London-based, Frida Wannerberger is renowned for her profound exploration of the intricate relationship between the strength and fragility of women. Her works delve into the notions of femininity and power, aiming to create an enabling space for women ‘to be seen and heard without the objectification or sexualisation of their bodies’, with women depicted in varying states of vulnerability and strength, through being dressed in different attire.