The festival runs from 20 April to 7 May at venues across the city
Whether it's the fact it has been going since 2005, or that the so-called Glasgow Miracle, which has produced a string of successful contemporary artists, means we have boundary pushing art here all year round, the GI feels like a celebratory event.
No one seems to be batting an eyelid at the fact a plastic Stonehenge has been inflated on Glasgow Green and the entire ground floor of the Gallery of Modern Art has been taken over by a new piece of sculpture already nicknamed "the Glasgow Tiramisu".
The actual title is Empty Now and it's one of two works by 2011 Turner Prize nominee Karla Black.
It is made from 17 tonnes of sawdust and makeup, carefully constructed over the last few weeks by Karla and a team at Glasgow Museums.
Whether you see it as a giant pudding, or a textured landscape, it definitely has the wow factor, and enough craft to dismiss those who think contemporary art as a little one note.
Jeremy Deller's work Sacrilege is also likely to be a popular choice. A huge inflatable version of Stonehenge on Glasgow Green, it's a joint commission with the London Olympics, and as accessible as they come, whether you want to walk, or bounce your way around it.
<bold>Metropolitan cousins</bold>
Down on the Clydeside, Matt Baker and Tara Beall commandeered a ferry, and Captain Thomas - not to mention some singers - to give us a taste of their work Nothing About Us Without Us is for Us.
They've spent months working with the community in Govan to create a piece which will involve firing language across the river, using unusual or obsolete technology - everything from choirs to flags to medieval catapults (their trebuchet is well under way in a nearby lockup).
The results can be seen on 28 April in a busy day of activities.
With 130 artists across 50 venues, there's certainly plenty of variety and there's little that would cause the sophisticated Glasgow audience to raise an eyebrow (their metropolitan cousins may be another matter).
And those who yearn for something a bit more traditional, perhaps even in a frame, should try dropping by the Mitchell Library where art duo Walker and Bromwich have set up an art lending library.
More than 60 artists have lent small, domestic-sized works from their own collections which can be borrowed and installed in your own living room for three days at a time, for the duration of the festival.
The Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art runs from 20 April until 7 May.
- Published20 April 2012
