Brutal Glasgow

Prints by Natalie Tweedie

Curation by Rachel Loughran

Grant aided by Glasgow City Heritage Trust

Glasgow has long been one of our favourite cities here at the modernist - so we invited Glasgow based illustrator Nebo Peklo (Natalie Tweedie), curator Rachel Loughran and Glasgow City Heritage Trust to share their interactive, multimedia exhibition 'Brutal Glasgow' with us here at ModernistHQ in Manchester.

'Glasgow is one of the great cities of the 19th century, but has long been beset by a certain type of guy for whom everything should have stopped in around 1914, and for whom the city's formidable modernist high-rises, offices, megastructures and churches are nothing but a series of catastrophes. Natalie Tweedie's project on the Clyde metropolis' Brutalist buildings zeroes in on some of the finest of these, and presents them not as piss and rain streaked remnants of a failed utopia, but as clear, optimistic and attractive models of a possible public architecture of the future that you can go and have a look at anytime. As in Manchester, Glasgow's modernist legacy is not one of grandiose icons by famous names - nobody will ever make a biopic of Robert Matthew or Isi Metzstein any more than they will about Cruikshank and Seward - but it is ordinary but vigorous buildings like these that really make a good modern city, and they're done justice in Tweedie's work.' Owen Hatherley

Private View - Friday 4th September 6pm - 8pm : All welcome

at the modernist
58 Port Street, Manchester M1 2EQ
open 11am to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday

Journey from Anniesland Tower to the Gallowgate Twins gaining fascinating insights into the city’s Brutalist buildings past and present, with commentary from architects, academics and writers including Miles Glendinning, Diane Watters, Rory Olcayto, Johnny Rodger, Nick Haynes, and Owen Hatherley, as well as first-hand stories from those who lived and worked in these monumental structures.

Devised by curator Rachel Loughran and grant-aided by Glasgow City Heritage Trust, the exhibition brings Nebo Peklo’s works to life, offering a deeper understanding of this often maligned style of architecture. 

Brutal Glasgow tells a uniquely Glasgow story and will make you see Brutalism in a whole new light. Don’t miss out – it might just change your mind about these concrete giants.

Following successful runs at Glasgow City Heritage Trust, the Pyramid at Anderston and RIAS in Edinburgh, the exhibition now heads south to the modernist in Manchester.

04.09.26 - 31.10.26

at the modernist
58 Port Street, Manchester M1 2EQ
open 11am to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday

Images: Illustrations: Natalie Tweedie / Photograph: Alasdair Watson