We are delighted to celebrate the Behrens family’s remarkable artistic journey. This rare exhibition brings together the work of Reinhard Behrens, Margaret Smyth Behrens, Kirstie Behrens, and David Behrens, each pursuing a distinct practice yet bound by shared values of imagination, craftsmanship, and curiosity.

At its centre is Reinhard Behrens, creator of Naboland, a visionary parallel world that has captivated audiences for half a century. His wife, painter Margaret Smyth Behrens, offers lyrical and meditative works rooted in nature and memory. Their daughter, Kirstie Behrens, brings refined sensitivity to etching and drawing. Their son, David Behrens, blends music, sculpture, and movement in playful automata and mobiles, and unveils five new film-portraits, created for this exhibition, offering a moving study of family life as art.

Best known for their presence at the Pittenweem Arts Festival, the Behrens family open their lives to the public with generosity and creativity. This exhibition honours that spirit, revealing a lineage of invention and inspiration across generations.

Margaret Smyth (Behrens)

Born: 1961

I hope that my paintings elicit curiosity, allowing the viewer to fill them with their own narratives, with their own memories real or imagined, like fairy tales. My aim is to try to evoke that moment of anticipation in a theatre, when the curtain lifts on the stage and reality is suspended.

Margaret Smyth (Behrens) graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1983. She is a regular exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Academy, Society of Scottish Artists and the Royal Society of Scottish Painters in Watercolour. Margaret is married to fellow artist Reinhard Behrens and they are parents to Kirstie Behrens and David Behrens. Margaret will be the subject of a solo exhibition at The Gallery alongside her artist family in 2025.

Kirstie Behrens

Born: 1991

Kirstie Behrens is an award-winning artist and printmaker, based in Pittenweem in Fife. She graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2019 and in 2021 she won the Roy Wood Prize for Printmaking, the Art in Healthcare Award and the W Gordon Smith & Jay Gordon Smith Award from the Royal Scottish Academy. Behrens practice revolves around time-based projects where natural elements are actively incorporated as tools in her practice, creating marks which leave traces of evidence of the passage of time. Traditional etching is a printmaking technique that involves using acid to bite into a metal plate (usually copper, zinc, or steel) to create an image. Using a sharp etching needle or other pointed tool, Behrens then draws directly onto the surface of the plate, exposing the metal beneath the ground. The lines and marks will later be etched into the plate. Traditional etching allows for a wide range of mark-making and tonal effects, making it a versatile and expressive medium for artists. While the process can be time-consuming and requires careful handling of hazardous materials, it offers unique opportunities for artistic experimentation and exploration. Behrens will be the subject of a solo exhibition in 2025 alongside her family, who are all practicing artists

David Behrens

Born: 1998

David Behrens is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans kinetic sculpture, music composition, and film. Raised in the artistic community of Pittenweem, Fife, he grew up immersed in the imaginative world of his father Reinhard Behrens’ Naboland and began exhibiting early works during the annual Pittenweem Arts Festival. After studying music at the Reid School of Music, Edinburgh College of Art, David worked on creative outreach projects in The Gambia and Greece, and spent four years with the East Neuk Festival. He is currently undertaking a Master’s in Composing for Film at the National Film and Television School in London. For The Behrens Family exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, David Behrens will present a new series of kinetic sculptures accompanied by original music and a short film reflecting on his family’s creative legacy.

Reinhard Behrens

Born: 1951

Reinhard Behrens was born in Germany 1951 and studied Drawing and Painting from 1971-78 at Hamburg College of Art. In 1979 he was awarded an academic exchange grant which allowed him to complete a Postgraduate Course in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. Between 1982 and 1986 Behrens worked as a part time lecturer at Edinburgh College of art, the Glasgow School of Art and Grays School of Art in Aberdeen.

Behrens’s practice inhabits a fictional world called Naboland, a mythical place of snow and ice. For over forty years, the artist has examined this world through the lens of a real history of discovery, with the artist adopting the role as explorer to create an archive of drawings, paintings, prints and installations which record the found objects and landscapes of Naboland. 2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of Naboland.

The Behrens Family

Margaret Smyth (Behrens)

Kirstie Behrens

David Behrens

Reinhard Behrens

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