The best art exhibitions coming up in Bristol and the Westcountry – selected by the Friends of the RWA…
Here’s our pick of the best art exhibitions and events happening in and around Bristol and the south west in the month ahead – including a look ahead to upcoming features….
AT THE RWA
RWA Photo Open Exhibition
28 Jan – 1 May 2023, Main galleries
The RWA Photo Open Exhibition is a celebration of contemporary photographic practice and is open to all artists who use this medium to submit either single images or limited series. From camera obscuras dating back to ancient China, to the breakthrough in capturing images with early pinhole photography, few artistic mediums have undergone such dramatic transformation. Now in the digital age, photography has become one of the most popular and accessible forms of artistic and personal expression. More info here.
Jem Southam: A Bend In The River
28 Jan – 1 May 2023, Main galleries
The RWA presents a special exhibition by leading Bristol-born photographer Jem Southam.
Southam is known for his diligently observed landscape photography documenting subtle changes in an environment over time, often photographing his surroundings in the South West of England. More info here.
Between Work and Window: Photographs of RWA Academicians by Anne-Katrin Purkiss
28 January – 12 March 2023, Kenny Gallery.
This exhibition of photographs of Royal West of England Academicians forms part of a larger collection of portraits, documenting British artists in the context of their working environment. It is an ongoing project that began more than thirty years ago with photographs of artists commissioned for press and news agencies and that is now pursued largely out of personal interest and based on commissions from the art galleries and publishers. See more here.
Underexposed
28 Jan – 23 April 2023
An exhibition of photographs by Alice Hendy showcasing the creative and brilliant work of disabled individuals who attend Bristol Community Links day centres, participating in portrait photography workshops led by Olumide Osinoiki. More info here.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Compiled by Sue Quirk and Laurel Smart
1) IMPRESSIONS ON PAPER: MIXED EXHIBITION
4 – 28 FEBRUARY, DAVID SIMON CONTEMPORARY, CASTLE CARY
For the ninth annual exhibition dedicated entirely to works of art on paper through painting, etching, engraving, woodcut and linocut prints, the gallery has brought together an exciting collection of work by established gallery artists and modern British names.
This exhibition includes a range of artists painting and drawing on paper in different mediums, including works by Hugo Grenville and Nicky Knowles RWA, as well as incorporating signed, original printmaking by Virginia Bridge, Anne Desmet RA, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson; etchings with watercolour by Lydia Corbett; lithographs by Sir Terry Frost RA; figurative engravings by Maynard Hales; characteristic still life with nostalgic objects and interiors by Steven Hubbard.
2) LINO PRINT 3: MIXED EXHIBITION
10 – 21 FEBRUARY, CENTRESPACE STUDIOS & GALLERY, BRISTOL
Thirty nationally and locally recognised lino print artists are featured in this exhibition.
There will be a public event on Sat 11th Feb 5.30PM onwards ~ featuring artist and musician Jed Loy Nichols.
Exhibition includes the following artists: Ben Dickson, Laura Boswell, Ieuan Edwards, Hugh Ribbans, Mandy Ribbans, Helen Murgatroyd, Eric Gaskell, John Pedder, Bryan Angus, Kat Flint, Nick Morley, Sean Star Wars, Joshua Miles, Mat Pringle, Jo Oakley, Hannah Forward, Jeb Loy Nichols, Alice Mac, Gail Brodholt, Rosanna Morris, Stephen Fowler, Victoria Willmott, Ben Sands, Matthew Lintott, Angie Lewin, Gemma Trickey, Paul Peter Piech, Mark Wilkinson, Lisa Takahashi, Trish Flynn.
3) KLEINER SHAMES: ACCUMULATE
10 – 25 FEBRUARY, THAT ART GALLERY, BRISTOL
Kleiner Shames has an innate desire to explore different techniques – ‘playing the same song with different instruments’ is key to Shames’ practice and this approach continues today. His process is an ongoing refusal to be contained in a single category, yet his evolving portfolio of work speaks to a naturally exploratory path from his early days writing graffiti.Accumulate is a collection of work that encompasses his portfolio and practice, showcasing paintings, screen-prints and assemblages constructed from found materials gathered over the past ten years. It is part of Shames’ continual experiment with form, shape, colour and line.
4) PAUL BLAKEMORE AND KAREN DEWS: PROJECT REWIND
10 – 26 FEBRUARY, HOURS, BRISTOL
Paul Blakemore and Karen Dews have been collaborating as photographers for over ten years. For the first time, at HOURS they will be celebrating a retrospective collection of work called Project Rewind from a self-published book called ‘SEE SAW’. This work explores ideas about collaborative image making and what happens when you rewind the camera film pass it on and let go. For the first time they will be showcasing images from the last ten years. With images from all over the world this project really celebrates how experiment and intuition work hand in hand. Where worlds really do collide, to beautiful effect as they make the machine dance with the light. The results invite you to travel between continents and get lost in time. Launch Event Friday 10th February 6-9 pm. Open Saturday 11th noon-5pm and thereafter by arrangement
5) JOHN BLACKBURN: REVISITATION PAINTINGS
UNTIL 18 FEBRUARY, VANNER GALLERY, SOUTHAMPTON
Work by the acclaimed abstract artist John Blackburn, focused on late career reworkings of earlier pieces. Curated by Jacquiline Creswell and produced in association with Osborne Samuel, the exhibition features a never-before-seen set of Blackburn’s ‘revisitation paintings’, works the artist produced by reconsidering earlier paintings and exploring the original ideas afresh. John Blackburn was born in 1932. His artistic reputation was first established in the early 1960s when he was collected extensively by Jim Ede at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. After a long hiatus beginning in the late 1960s, he began exhibiting again in 2006 with a major museum show in Folkestone. It was here his association with Osborne Samuel began, with the gallery going on to show his work in several exhibitions, most recently the retrospective ‘John Blackburn at 90: Seven Decades of Painting’ in September 2022. This was the last exhibition of his work John got to see before he sadly passed away in October 2022
6) EXPANDING LANDSCAPES: PAINTING AFTER LAND ART
UNTIL 26 FEBRUARY, HESTERCOMBE GALLERY, CHEDDON FITZPAINE, SOMERSET
This exhibition brings together historical works by artists associated with Land Art, with contemporary artists who engage directly with landscape through the language of painting.
Works by artists associated with Land Art including Nancy Holt, Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Smithson, Richard Long, Michelle Stuart, Roger Ackling and Marie Yates, are on show alongside contemporary works by painters Hannah Brown, Sam Douglas, Onya McCausland, Rebecca Partridge, Damian Taylor, Fred Sorrell and Jessica Warboys. Prints from Ingrid Pollard’s Landscape Trauma series mediate between the contemporary and historical aspects of the exhibition.
‘In the 1960s and 70s many artists left the studio and went into the landscape, using both the physical materials of the land and their direct experience of it as the source and inspiration for new art works. Although considered novel at the time, we can trace a history of Land Art back to Romanticism, where observations of light, time and human perception were seen as ways of thinking about nature and our relationship to environment…’
7) SALLY BALDWIN: FRAGILE EARTH
UNTIL 4 MARCH, THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, HONITON, DEVON
A new exhibition of work by artist Sally Baldwin Fragile Earth is a body of work evoking natural forms such as trees, pods, flowers, insects, sea life, water. The materials used – recycled paper, handmade paper, silk waste, silk, cotton scrim – are ghostly, white and ephemeral, suggesting delicate, fragile, finely balanced and vulnerable landscapes.
The work has its origins during the first lockdown when it felt as if the world as we knew it was collapsing – not only was the environment under extraordinary threat, with climate change and habitat loss clearly demonstrated all around us, but society too was crumbling because of a rampaging virus. The pieces in the Fragile Earth collection reflect some of the issues involved in our current environmental crisis.
WATCH OUT FOR
- ANNE JACKSON: TAPESTRIES FROM ‘THE WITCHCRAFT SERIES’: UNTIL 18 FEBRUARY Commemoration of women executed for witchcraft in England, Scotland & Europe. PLOUGH ARTS CENTRE, GREAT TORRINGTON https://www.theploughartscentre.org.uk/exhibition/some-tapestries-witchcraft-series
- RICHARD HOARE: THRESHOLD: UNTIL 26 FEBRUARY Latest paintings from Richard Hoare featuring landscapes of the remote, western fringe of Ireland and Scotland. MESSUMS WILTSHIRE, TISBURY https://messumswiltshire.com/exhibitions/pvr-richard-hoare-threshold/
The Floating Circle 