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
170 Annual Open Exhibition
Until 14 Jan 2024
The RWA’s renowned Annual Open Exhibition is now in its 170th year, and – as always – offers a stunning variety of work from emerging and established artists. This dynamic, varied and uplifting exhibition includes a stunning array of painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, installation and mixed media artworks, and is a showcase of some of the most exciting artists from across the country and beyond.
All work is for sale, making the Annual Open a perfect opportunity to discover new artists or invest in well-known names. You can browse – and buy – the artworks from your home online.
A selection panel assessed every entry and this year over 600 works made it into the final exhibition. The panel this year included Charmaine Watkiss and Meryl Ainslie together with RWA Academicians Fiona Robinson PRWA, Dallas Collins VPRWA, Lucy Austin RWA, Angela Lizon RWA and Karl Singporewala RWA.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Compiled by Sue Quirk and Laurel Smart
1) SANDRA MEECH & ELIZABETH BRIMELOW: MOMENTUM: MEMORIES, JOURNEYS & TIMES
UNTIL 7 OCTOBER, ACEARTS, SOMERTON, SOMERSET
Sandra Meech and Elizabeth Brimelow are landscape inspired artists. ’Momentum’ will focus on personal experiences based on memories and a glimpse of special moments in time. The Somerset Levels, climate change and art, collage and stitch observations from personal walks and journeys are some of the themes which will be explored.
2) RUTH BATEMAN: HOPE TRIUMPHS OVER ADVERSITY
10-27 OCTOBER, PLOUGH ARTS CENTRE, GREAT TORRINGTON, DEVON
‘I believe in Hope, in unity. I paint intuitively and with expression’.
Ruth has a primal connection to wilderness. She explores the landscape with her body: rock-climbing, mountaineering, cycling, feeling the earth rumble through her. This bodily experience of landscape is reflected in the kinetic way Ruth creates her paintings. Inner and outer landscapes collide, carving a way through dark and often confusing times, seeking the light that offers the beacon of hope, a celebration of difference. Sometimes working on enormous bedsheets, she allows herself to be entirely instinctive with paint. At the beginning, the marks are frenzied, the choices of colour entirely innate.
‘My work is ever evolving like my own journey, navigating and overcoming. Green shoots will grow, the clouds will break, a voice will be heard.’ Preview: Mon 09 Oct 2023, 6:00pm
3) CONNECTIONS: GROUP 7
UNTIL 11 OCTOBER, SOU’-SOU’-WEST GALLERY, BRIDPORT, DORSET
The members of “group 7” are all established artists who are connected by their confidence in their practice as a relevant and vital medium, they aim to develop and substantiate their position within contemporary practice. All the artists are producing powerfully mature and expressive works, where colour is a common denominator. Artists: Brian Bishop, Martin Brewster, Bonnie Brown, Michelle Griffiths, Ursula Leach, Stephen Powell, and Peter Symons
The title Connections gives meaning to their common ground, despite each of the group’s work having a distinct identity. The group exhibit together because of their mutual interests in the predominantly painterly language of abstraction. The group have a mutual confidence in the ability of marks, colour, gestures, and composition to communicate in their own right. Some of the group feature recognisable landscape references within their images, but here there is evidence of one of the primary engines of abstraction, the simplification and selection of shape. The elimination of details or elements of the topographical information to release the power of the evocative and more abstract concerns is a connection that can be identified. These are not literal representations of the landscape, colours are changed, forms are simplified and often flattened in the picture space, the imagery is developed by the actions and decisions of the artist in their own creative process to move towards forms that have their own painterly visual energy and exist in a more abstract world. These actions and decisions in the making (and discovering) process constitute a clear connection between members of Group 7.
4) SOUTH HAMS ARTS TRAIL: FEATURING SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF WORK BY PAM NEAVES, ELEANOR KING AND SARAH RINGROSE
14-29 OCTOBER, CIDER PRESS GALLERY, DARTINGTON, DEVON
As well as the 60 plus local artists exhibiting within the Cider Press Gallery there is a special exhibition in the upstairs Gallery from three female artists:
Pam Neaves, painter & ceramicist, has always loved art, culture, experimentation and people. Starting her career in the arts as a graphic designer, Pam wanted to spend more time working with clay and mixed media and has honed her skills as an artist over the last 15 years. Influenced by nature and the landscapes on our doorsteps in Devon Pam creates work which aims to bring joy and escapism to the viewer.
Sarah Ringrose, printmaker, painter and collage artist, studied illustration. Inspired by objects found inside and outside the home as well as birds which feature in much of Sarah’s work, she creates patterned, textured and colourful pieces which feel familiar yet beautifully abstract.
Eleanor King, watercolour artist, studied graphic design but a watercolour painting holiday inspired her to pursue fine art with a focus on beautiful landscapes and distant vistas. Eleanor has always loved the great outdoors especially the atmospheric light of dawn and dusk and the colours created by moody dramatic weather. Eleanor uses her canvas to capture her emotional response to a scene with the aim of stopping the viewer in their tracks, to encourage them to slow down and contemplate earth’s beauty.
5) SPENCER SHAKESPEARE: CROSSINGS
UNTIL 19 OCTOBER, THE VANNER GALLERY, SALISBURY, WILTSHIRE
A solo show by Spencer Shakespeare, “Crossings” speaks of the primordial journey which brings into being all life and the voyages and movements that come after.
On large-scale canvases, abstract gestures push and pull apparitions in and out of obscurity. Informed by the movement of water and the protective covering of nature, Shakespeare’s work acts as a portal through which we might transcend and escape.
“From one place to another, we are still. The waters move through; that’s what we feel.” – Spencer Shakespeare, 2023
6) STITCHING TOGETHER – AN EXHIBITION
UNTIL 29 OCTOBER, ARNOLFINI, BRISTOL
Stitching Together – An Exhibition is created by Bridges for Communities and Arnolfini to celebrate and share the unique partnership that has developed over the last three years, drawing out the special moments and projects that have helped the partnership to grow.
In Gallery 5, there will be a particular focus on the beautiful textile creations and stories of women from across Bristol, including the work of Arnolfini’s regular Friday Women’s Craft Club and Bridges for Communities’ Stitching Together groups.
In partnership with Bristol Refugee Festival and Bridges for Communities, Arnolfini’s Craft Club, is a weekly ‘craft and conversation’ group where women from all backgrounds are welcome to come along, have a cup of tea, share skills and get crafty. The Stitching Together group provides a welcoming space for refugee and asylum-seeking women in Bristol to be creative and make beautiful and useful textile based art, clothes, and homewares, while gaining confidence and making friends.
7) IAN DAVENPORT: WORKS ON PAPER
UNTIL 3 NOVEMBER, BURTON AT BIDEFORD, DEVON
Ian Davenport is well known for his abstract paintings, which explore process and materiality. In recent years, his work has consisted of carefully poured lines of acrylic paint down a surface, which puddle and pool at the bottom. This technique allows him to explore complex arrangements of line and colour. Over the past ten years he has also turned his attention to screen-printing and etching, building up an impressive body of graphic work.
This current exhibition will showcase Ian Davenport’s works on paper from his time at Goldsmiths College to present day. Many of the works have never been displayed together before and a new illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition. It is the first of Davenport’s exhibition catalogues to be narrated by the artist himself.
LAST CHANCE TO SEE
- UNTIL 1 OCTOBER: THREADS: ‘BREATHING STORIES INTO MATERIALS’ An exhibition featuring 21 contemporary international artists and makers, who use textiles as their chosen medium. ARNOLFINI, BRISTOL https://arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/threads/
- UNTIL 1 OCTOBER: MARY NOON & VIVIENNE LITTLEY: WATER AND SKY Two local artists explore the constantly changing environments of our skies, seas and waterways through the media of watercolour, acrylics and collage. LIME BAY ARTS, LYME REGIS MUSEUM, DORSET https://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/exhibitions/
WATCH OUT FOR
- ST IVES MODERNISTS: 12-28 OCTOBER Featuring some of the most iconic names associated with the St Ives Movement, artists include Sandra Blow, Terry Frost, Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Ben Nicholson, Breon O’Casey. DAVID SIMON CONTEMPORARY, CASTLE CARY https://www.davidsimoncontemporary.com/exhibitions/39-st-ives-modernists-sandra-blow-terry-frost-barbara-hepworth/overview/
- INDEX BY SHN: UNTIL 14 OCTOBER Artworks printed in a simple manner using low-tech screen printing and flat colours. THAT ART GALLERY, BRISTOL https://www.thatartgallery.com/
- SUSAN DERGES: MANY MOONS: UNTIL 22 OCTOBER New exhibition reflects on thirty years of printmaking. HESTERCOMBE GALLERY, CHEDDON FITZPAINE, SOMERSET https://www.hestercombe.com/whats-on/susan-derges-many-moons
- A VISIBLE THREAD: SEAM COLLECTIVE: UNTIL 29 OCTOBER Making thread visible – artists and makers: Alice Marie Archer, Lou Baker, Oliver Bliss, Jane Colquhoun, Nina Gronw-Lewis, Julie Heaton, Leah Hislop, Desiree Jeans, Helen MacRitchie, Joy Merron, Lydia Needle, Angie Parker, Nicola Turner, and the late Dr Linda Row. BLACK SWAN ARTS, FROME, SOMERSET https://www.blackswanarts.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/seam-collective-2/
The Floating Circle 