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
Until 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
Until 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
Until 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
Until 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) KAY LEWIS-BELL, SHARED MOMENTS
UNTIL 11 MARCH, ACEARTS, SOMERTON, SOMERSET
Drawings, paintings and words reflecting memories of the ordinary. “I am fascinated by people, how they move, how they stand and what they say. Sketch books and photographs are initial sources. Watching and listening feed my ideas. I invent my own stories as I work. Colour and pattern reflect my mood and expectations. I usually draw quickly across the paper or canvas, I might then add colour and background pattern. Sometimes I leave the charcoal drawing as the final piece. I use lines and words from poetry as my way of enhancing and sharing my perception of a painting.”
2) SUE WILLIAMSON: URBAN ARCHITECTURE & EUROPEAN TRAVELS INC. WORK BY SARA EVANS & LAUREL KEELEY
UNTIL 14 MARCH, SOUTH GATE GALLERY, EXETER
Sue Williamson’s work is about looking, contemplation and absorbing a sense of time and place along with the evocation of fragmented memories of experiences. Her focus is upon translating personal experiences of places she has spent time in and recreating them pictorially with the intention of conveying sensations of moving through and around architectural spaces; from interior to exterior and from varying vantage points. The interplay between light and shadow that occurs throughout the day, the highlighting of shape and pattern, the subtlety and drama of colour changes brought about by fluctuating light on surface; these are the components of her work.
Exhibition includes sculpture by Sara Evans and pottery by Laura Keeley.
3) NEW FACES 2023: GROUP SHOW
UNTIL 18 MARCH, PORTHMINSTER GALLERY, ST IVES, CORNWALL
A curated show of emerging and established artists new to the gallery. The following four artists make their debut to St Ives: each having a strong affinity with both the rich artistic heritage of the town, and the raw, natural beauty of the surrounding peninsula of West Penwith. They are Amy Albright – ethereal semi-abstracted landscapes in oil on canvas; Saul Cathcart – abstracted landscapes in acrylic on linen canvas; Nicky Knowles – mixed-media collage upon board; Nathan Isaac – mixed media collage on vintage book covers.
4) SHOWCASING CORE ARTISTS: GROUP SHOW
UNTIL 20 MARCH, HEART OF THE TRIBE GALLERY, GLASTONBURY, SOMERSET
The entire gallery space is used to exhibit a large selection of the Core Artists work. There have been some exciting changes to the gallery over the January period to allow a display of fantastic and varied art from their talented stable of artists. This includes a selection of styles and talent based in and around Glastonbury, both established and emerging, who the gallery represents. The Core Artists are: Aga Kubish, Ash Noakes, Emma Housley, Frances Watts, Frank Harwood, Ian James Burkett, Inigo Rose, Jim Pilston, Jon Minshull, Kim Von Coels, Leonard Green, Melanie Thompson, Monika Miller, Olga Pietruszka, Penelope O’Gara, Rowena Draper, Ruary Allan, Sara Trenchard, Sue Cresswell, Wil I Om.
5) CONTEMPORARY PRINT & THE INK ON PAPER PRESS: GROUP SHOW
UNTIL 25 MARCH, CHIPPENHAM MUSEUM, WILTSHIRE
Celebrating the best in contemporary printmaking and The Ink on Paper Press, founded in Wiltshire by artist Amy-Jane Blackhall in 2015. Blackhall worked on editions for renowned artists such as Howard Hodgkin and Gillian Ayres. The etching press that stands at the heart of the studio came from 107 Workshop.
All the works featured in the exhibition were printed at The Ink on Paper Press. Works by Royal Academicians Emma Stibbon and Ann Christopher will be shown alongside other innovative printmakers including Celia Cook, Ian Chamberlain, and the late Michael Pennie. All of the prints on show were recently acquired through the Golder-Thompson Gift to Chippenham Museum in Memory of Arthur Norman. Marking the prominence of printmaking in this corner of Wiltshire, the gift spans one hundred years of printmaking from 1920 to the present day.
6) MARCELLE HANSELAAR: REBEL WOMEN FROM THE APOCRYPHA
UNTIL 25 MARCH, ANIMA MUNDI GALLERY, ST IVES, CORNWALL
A solo exhibition which features a new series of prints from Marcelle Hanselaar shown in its entirety and runs concurrently to her central participation in ‘Bearing Witness? Violence and Trauma on Paper’ at The Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge alongside Francisco Goya, Otto Dix, Leo Haas, Jean Rustin, Chapman Brothers, Jane Joseph, Eduard Manet, Pablo Picasso and Judy Watson.
“I initially learnt about these feisty heroines from early paintings and began researching their stories out of curiosity. Not only are these women early feminists, standing up to male domination, but what is so fascinating is the illogicality of these texts. They read like the uttering of an oracle and have, throughout time, been open to many interpretations. I have given my own, contemporary take as these themes are as relevant as ever. Assertiveness in women is still often criticised or curtailed and I feel that these ancient, imaginary narratives give us a much-needed energising subversiveness.”
7) LAURA PORTER: COMPOST
UNTIL 31 MARCH, PLOUGH ARTS CENTRE, GREAT TORRINGTON, DEVON
Working with discarded clothing – a material that carries with it cyclical histories of land, worker, consumer and waste – Laura breaks down the garments to create a raw material that is re-formed into solid structures, which are often a response to the environments in which she works. Intrinsically grounded in the traditions of craft and textiles art, Laura’s practice pushes back against an automated, digitised world and hierarchies of labour and material, instead placing value in slow, low-tech processes performed by the body. Using her own body as a site of action and a renewable energy source, she undertakes labour-intensive tasks in order to critique the idea of productivity as a measurable output of effectiveness.
Laura’s practice explores the in-betweenness of repurposed materials and built environments, and the energies of consciousness that have been absorbed by these over time. From invisible matter to formal structures, she’s interested in how the man-made can evolve and shift into a quasi-living entity; a reflection of the natural world on which it relies. She re-imagines our material world as neither rigid nor organic – straddling the space between biological and human-made; rural and urban; lived and inactive. ‘Compost’ is a collection of new 3D works that disrupts the space as much as it pieces it together, threading elements from the outside, inside and the temporal into these transformed material objects. Accompanying the installation is a collection of wall-based sculptures and drawings that explore the slowness and contemplative act of configuring and building.
LAST CHANCE TO SEE
- UNTIL 3 MARCH: DUDLEY LADD:PAPER TAPE AND TIME An exhibition of work made in isolation. GUGGLETON FARM ARTS, STALBRIDGE, DORSET https://www.facebook.com/theguggleton/
WATCH OUT FOR
- MILKY AND RUDI: DOWNSIDE UPSTREET: 10 – 26 MARCH A showing of collaborative paintings on upcycled wood and canvases. HOURS, BRISTOL http://www.hours-space.com/2023/02/05/upcycled-art-streetstyle-launch-event-bristol/
- SILENCE AND SLOW TIME: GROUP SHOW: UNTIL 18 MARCH Paintings by Louise Balaam NEAC RWA, Nicholas Jones, Alfred Stockham ARCA RWA, Furniture by Petter Southall. SLADERS YARD, BRIDPORT, DORSET https://sladersyard.wordpress.com/silence-and-slow-time/
- CACOPHONY: GROUP SHOW: UNTIL APRIL 9 Music-inspired art – featuring: Thomas Dowdeswell, Mark Elliott Smith, Holly Mingo, Jessie Woodward, Louise C Eames. VIEW GALLERY, BRISTOL https://viewartgallery.uk/exhibitions
The Floating Circle 