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
Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City
Until 13 Aug 2023, Main galleries
Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City, is a national touring exhibition curated for the Arts Council Collection by Turner Prize-winning artist and cultural activist Lubaina Himid CBE.
This exhibition of over 60 works, including some by Bristol-based artists, presents a wide array of modern and contemporary art, including painting, sculpture, photography and film from both the Arts Council Collection and artists’ studios.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Compiled by Sue Quirk and Laurel Smart
1) NICOLETTE MCGUIRE, MY ROOTS ARE IN THE OCEAN
2-25 JUNE, HOURS, BRISTOL
“I am an artist who walks in wild places. Solitude is important for me. I walk by the sea, the dunes, saltmarshes, waterfalls, the intertidal zone, cliffs and caves. I swim in tidal pools. I sit quietly so that I become invisible, and nature begins to move around me… I take photographs, make sketches, make work on the beach that will wash away, documenting it as it does. I collect objects and experiences. I take home sea smells and sounds. In the studio I make maps in various ways, of the places I have been. I return myself to the feelings of being there. Immersed in the work as I was in the places. Lost in solitude. I make paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptural objects and installations. These groups of work connect and talk to each other. The materials I use, the walks I do, are as important as finished work. I love blue and gold.”
Launch Event Friday 2 June 6-9pm, 3-4 June 11am-5 pm. Thereafter by arrangement.
2) TRISTAN MANCO, COME TOGETHER
9-24 JUNE, THAT ART GALLERY, BRISTOL
Tristan Manco is an artist, author and educator. His artwork is influenced by 1980-1990’s Pop culture, creating imagery with a visual twist. Primitivism and Pre-Columbian art inspire some of his recent work, particularly the bold lines found in the traditional textiles of Peru. Manco’s style could be described as ancient contemporary that aims to mix ancient art traditions with present-day iconography. These latest artworks are defined by playful colour and geometric forms, used to explore connections between people, environments and nature.
3) ALAN & AMANDA WALLWORK: EARTH | GROUND
UNTIL 10 JUNE, BRIDPORT ARTS GALLERY, DORSET
This exhibition brings together two artists, father and daughter, whose work has been deeply influenced by the Dorset landscape, prehistory and deep time. Showing ceramics from the archive of Alan Wallwork (d.2019) and paintings and other works by Amanda Wallwork.
Alan Wallwork enjoyed early success making a range of distinctive individual hand built sculptural forms, his pieces resembling archaic, sometimes totemic shapes. He moved his studio to Dorset in 1964, closer to the landscapes and evidence of prehistory that was an influence on his early work. His work evolved to reflect the shapes, colours and textures to be found in the coast and countryside of Dorset – especially the cool bleached colours of the seashore where the pebbles and rock formations have been eroded into their unique shapes by the action of the elements over countless millennia.
Amanda Wallwork is a visual artist using drawing, painting, mapping and installations to explore our experience of landscape – a quest for a real understanding of what lies beyond the aesthetic. From what can only be seen from above through aerial photography and new remote sensing technology to the secrets beneath our feet and the vast unimaginable timescales of geological deep time. Her work is deeply influenced by childhood experiences of visits to archaeological sites and museums and growing up watching her father manipulate clay – although preferring to work in other mediums herself.
4) SHIFTING SPACES, ID ARTISTS GROUP SHOW
23 JUNE – 8 JULY, HERITAGE COURTYARD GALLERY, WELLS, SOMERSET
iD-artists include Gail Mason, Vicki Campbell, Dawn Mason, Stephanie Wooster, Sara Parsons and Tina Hill. Shifting Spaces by iD-artists is an exhibition exploration of the themes of physical and emotional spaces. The artworks engage with a sense of the shifting space between disciplines and between concept and materiality.
Works exhibited include printmaking, painting, textiles, multimedia work, ceramics, and works on paper.
5) DAVID SHILLINGLAW X LILY MIXE, MEET ME IN THE GARDEN | RENDEZ-VOUS DANS LE JARDIN
UNTIL 24 JUNE, VANNER GALLERY, SALISBURY, WILTSHIRE
A collaborative exhibition with two young contemporary artists working in the UK: David Shillinglaw and Lily Mixe, known for their distinctive street art and murals. This exhibition is a dance between two artists, a hybrid of styles and personalities. Sharing a home and studio, tools and techniques, this show gathers together separate and collaborative pieces made over the last few years. The works correspond and contradict each other, sharing themes and ideas. Meet Me in the Garden is an opportunity for these two artists to create a middle ground, an organic place for things to grow.
6) ANDREW HARDWICK, LOST LANDSCAPES
UNTIL 24 JUNE, PLOUGH ARTS, GREAT TORRINGTON, DEVON
Hardwick paints large scale richly texture paintings using a combination of unconventional materials including plaster and soils. He paints edgeland environments around Royal Portbury and Avonmouth Docks, where his studio is located. He paints this ever changing landscape, as well as the one he remembers herding sheep by the estuary. Watching now long scrapped ships escape to open sea. His paintings explore the sensibilities of these powerful elemental
places, exploring land use, feelings and memory.
7) BILL FONTANA SILENT ECHOES, NOTRE DAME
UNTIL 3 JULY, WELLS CATHEDRAL UNDERCROFT, WELLS, SOMERSET
Since the early 1970s, Bill Fontana has made art from the amplified sound of chosen objects and places, interweaving discreet sounds into subtle acoustic landscapes. Following the disastrous fire on 15 April 2019 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, he designed a live sound sculpture across multiple audio channels at the IRCAM studios, using seismic accelerators attached to ten of the cathedral’s bells. Reduced to silence during the restoration works to the building, these bells nevertheless remained extraordinary recesses of sound. Each one responds through its tonality to the noises of the restoration worksite, the wind and the murmurs of the city. These complex sounds are then mixed into an ensemble relayed through loudspeakers into the stone-vaulted, perfect octagon of Wells Cathedral’s Undercroft.
Through this installation, Project Factory partnered with Wells Cathedral, Wells, England joins Paris, France for a shared communion of sound and hope.
LAST CHANCE TO SEE
- UNTIL 3 JUNE: PARADISE FOUND:NEW VISIONS OF THE BLACKDOWN HILLS Group exhibition of contemporary interpretation by 36 artists. THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, HONITON, DEVON https://www.thelmahulbert.com/
WATCH OUT FOR
- LAUREL SMART, FEELING, HEARING & DANCING WITH COLOUR: 2 JUNE- 2 JULY Laurel Smart’s new exhibition – public open day 16th June 5pm – 11.55pm. Meet the Artist events details @laurelsmartpainting. MOUNT WITHOUT, BRISTOL https://www.themountwithout.co.uk/public-events
- INVISIBLE LANDSCAPES: 15-21 JUNE Group exhibition from Andrew D Clark, Matt Clark and Alex Clark. CENTRESPACE, BRISTOL https://www.centrespace.org.uk/whats-on
- LOUISE BOURGEOIS, ARTISTS ROOMS: UNTIL 25 JUNE Exhibition of works from last twenty years of her life. DORSET MUSEUM, DORCHESTER https://www.dorsetmuseum.org/event/artist-rooms-louise-bourgeois/
- DESIGN FOR LIFE: ART AND ARCHITECTURE PART 1: UNTIL 2 JULY Artworks by over twenty international artists and architects including Le Corbusier, Bridget Riley, Leonhard Lapin, Toni Davey, Andreas Gursky, Liu Wei, Cyprien Gaillard and Ugo La Pietra. HESTERCOMBE GALLERY, CHEDDON FITZPAINE, SOMERSET https://www.hestercombe.com/whats-on/design-for-life
The Floating Circle 