Edinburgh Art Festival is back with its largest programme yet; 30 venues across the Scottish capital are showcasing the works of more than 200 artists from across the world. Stepping out of a tranquil art gallery into the "feverish melee of tourists and street performers" that fill the city for the Fringe at this time of year is a "strange experience", said Samuel Reilly in The Telegraph . But the festival has a character that "chimes with the ethos" of the Fringe; it is clear from paying a visit to the city's galleries and museums that the processes that go into making these works of art are "exceptionally rich and varied".
The core theme for this year's show is a celebration of "persistence", spanning everything from personal histories to post-colonial landscapes and the global political stage. However, the best artists "touch on" such political questions as just one part of their complex works. At Ingleby Gallery on Barony Street, Hayley Barker's "shimmering, brooding" paintings of the gardens surrounding her studio in LA throughout the seasons are a "revelation".
A short stroll away at the Royal Botanic Garden, a locally crafted table constructed from a diseased cedar tree becomes a "literal and conceptual space for discussion", said Giles Sutherland in The Times . Here, the Colombian cultural foundation Más Arte Más Acción is hosting a series of performances and readings to examine the interconnections between humans and plants in times of dramatic biodiversity los.