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 – including a look ahead to upcoming features….
AT THE RWA
RWA Biennial Open 2025: Paper Works
25 Jan – 27 Apr 2025
Paper Works, the RWA’s Biennial exhibition, is all about paper. Selected from an open submission it celebrates paper as a surface for drawing and printmaking and as a sculptural material. The work in the exhibition ranges from powerful visceral charcoal drawings to hangings so delicate as they move in the still air that it almost seems as if they do not exist. There are tiny intimate paintings, exquisite fine line drawings on costly cotton rag paper and expressive vibrant works on packaging cardboard and paper animal feed sacks. If you love paper you will love this show and if you don’t know anything about it come with the RWA on a voyage of discovery.
Paule Vézelay: Living Lines
25 Jan – 27 Apr 2025
Discover the internationally important work of Paule Vézelay, a key figure of 20th-century British abstract art. Her vivid explorations of colour and line fill this retrospective exhibition at the RWA – the largest solo show of Vézelay’s work in over 40 years.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Compiled by Sue Quirk and Laurel Smart
1) IT ALL BEGAN IN YEOVIL, THE AMAZING CAREER OF ARTIST BRIAN RICE
UNTIL 12 APRIL, YEOVIL ART SPACE, YEOVIL, SOMERSET
Born in Yeovil, Brian Rice, one of the UK’s most respected abstract painters, began his art training in Yeovil School of Art at the age of 17, where he studied Illustration, textile printing and oil painting. Now 88, his work is in over 70 international collections, including the Tate Gallery and The Victoria and Albert Museum among many other esteemed collections nationally and internationally.
The exhibition presents an extensive collection of over 40 pieces of early works made by Brian in the 1950s, including his first wood engraving ‘Rare Breed’. Art education in the 1950s was rigorous, “The skills I learnt then still inform my work today” says Brian. His art school work includes figurative drawings and landscapes, which may surprise many who are more familiar with his bold colourful abstract paintings. Also in the show is his personal archive of photos, such as The Christmas ball at Yeovil School of Art in 1952. The early figurative and landscape work in the show depicts many local scenes, including several of Yeovil town centre as it then was, along with Montacute House and views from Ham Hill. The exhibition also presents a selection of his later work that reflects his enduring interest in archaeology and ancient landscapes in South West England, and some of the more recent abstract work will be shown to the public for the first time.
2) THE SIGHT OF MUSIC: GROUP EXHIBITION
12-16 APRIL, CENTRESPACE STUDIOS & GALLERY, BRISTOL
The Sight of Music is an exhibition celebrating the connection between visual art and music. Bringing together a group of talented artists from Bristol and beyond, the exhibition showcases the way that these visual artists are inspired by music in their life and creative practice. Each of their resonant and distinctive experiences of engaging with music and sound will be transformed into visual expression through a selection of masterful printmaking, graphic design, illustration, painting, ceramics and sculpture. Private View: Friday 11th April 6-10 pm
Live music and creative events throughout the week of the exhibition will give visitors a chance to explore their own relationship between music and visual art. Featured artists include:
Andrew Wilson, Caio Wheelhouse, Dylan Woodall, Ed Cheverton, Emily Seffar, Eska Marsh, Edith Morris, Guillaume de Ubeda, Hannah Forward, Jessie Chiang, Jonny Hannah, Martyna Gradziel, Maya Albagaloo, Molly Fairhurst, Sanni Pyhänniska, Steph Dutton, Tess Duffin.
3) ARTIZAN WOMEN’S OPEN 2025: GROUP EXHIBITION
UNTIL 13 APRIL, ARTIZAN COLLECTIVE, TORQUAY, DEVON
The Artizan Women’s Open Exhibition returns for 2025, continuing its mission to celebrate, amplify, and champion women artists in a diverse and inclusive showcase.
Held at Artizan Collective Gallery, Fleet Walk, the exhibition will feature UK and international artists, each contributing work that highlights the breadth of contemporary creative practice. The show opens on International Women’s Day, 8th March, setting the stage for a five-week programme that acknowledges both the challenges women face in the art world and the extraordinary contributions they continue to make. At a time when conversations around gender, representation, and artistic equity remain as urgent as ever, this exhibition provides a vital platform for discussion, connection, and inspiration. Across a range of disciplines, from painting and print to sculpture and photography, the Artizan Women’s Open brings together work that is innovative, thought-provoking, and deeply personal. Over 45 artists are featured.
4) AN UNCOMMON THREAD: GROUP EXHIBITION
UNTIL 21 APRIL, HAUSER & WIRTH, BRUTON, SOMERSET
‘An Uncommon Thread’ features 10 contemporary artists living and working in the UK. The group exhibition highlights the transformative power of unconventional mediums in evoking personal and collective memories. Each artist demonstrates an unwavering commitment to the integral role materials and techniques play in their creative process, employing unexpected painting surfaces, adapting formal craft traditions and repurposing discarded products into compelling works. Through individual investigations of identity, tradition, nature, fantasy and the environment, the artists invite viewers to engage with the rich stories woven into each work.
Featuring Rachael Louise Bailey, Max Boyla, KV Duong, Charlotte Edey, Nour Jaouda, Lindsey Mendick, Jack O’Brien, Nengi Omuku, Tai Shani and Georg Wilson.
5) SUNNY SIDE UP: GROUP EXHIBITION
UNTIL 26 APRIL, CLOSE LTD, HATCH BEAUCHAMP, SOMERSET
SUNNY SIDE UP embraces yellow as a metaphor for optimism and positivity and brings together a fusion of new voices as we welcome Richard Scarry to the gallery. This exhibition includes CLOSE and invited artists from a broad and far-reaching demographic with one common element within their visual language. Van Gogh famously used yellow in his sunflower paintings and The Yellow House (1888). During Picasso’s Blue Period, he incorporated yellow to contrast and highlight faces and significant objects. Renoir used yellow to add shine and definition to hair or to emphasize key elements of his paintings, such as the boat in The Skiff (1875).
Yellow also carries cultural significance beyond the art world. The Beatles’ song Yellow Submarine (1966) commentators suggest a deeper meaning. Time Magazine described it as a “symbol of the psychedelic set’s desire for escape,” while music journalist Peter Doggett noted that it became “a kind of Rorschach test for radical minds.”
Artists include: Patrick Alston, Helen Barff, Amanda Benson, Suzanne Blank Redstone, Gordon Cheung, Dean Coates, Will Cruickshank, Stewart Geddes, Magnus Hammick, Jane Harris, Lee Johnson, Nicholas Lees, Angela Lizon, Chris Levine, Sol Lewitt, Jason Martin, Kate MccGwire, Trish Morrissey, Anna Mossman, Mahali O’ Hare, Niamh O’Malley, Katherine Perrins, Umar Rashid, Tamsin Relly, Brian Rice, Mark Surridge, Lucy Temple, Joe Warrior Walker, Lisa Wright.
6) JOHN LYONS: CARNIVALESQUE
UNTIL 5 MAY, THE BOX, PLYMOUTH
The first major retrospective exhibition of Caribbean British artist and poet John Lyons and his contribution to British art, literature and art education over the last 60 years.
Carnivalesque features a series of Lyons’ dynamic, expressive works and explores the folklore and mythology of Trinidad and Tobago, in particular the large colourful carnival that takes place there just before Ash Wednesday every year. Mysterious figures mingle with symbols and motifs including the mythical ‘jumbie bird’. Vibrant scenes are laced with uncertainty as you are invited to take a journey into Lyons’ world.
The exhibition brings over 40 of his works to Plymouth, including paintings, drawings and sketchbooks. It also showcases some of Lyons’ poetry – offering a unique insight into his creative process. A series of complementary displays in the Active Archives gallery will take their inspiration from the exhibition and highlight some of the South West’s important carnival traditions.
7) HOLBURNE MUSEUM BATH: TWO EXHIBITIONS UNTIL 5 MAY
ICONIC: PORTRAITURE FROM BACON TO ANDY WARHOL
JOSHUA DONKOR: I HAVE MORE SOULS THAN ONE
ICONIC: PORTRAITURE FROM BACON TO ANDY WARHOL: featuring major names of 20th century art including Francis Bacon, Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, Richard Hamilton, Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol, this exhibition brings rarely seen works together to explore the ways artists are inspired by photography. The exhibition focuses on the period in the mid-20th century, particularly the 1960s, when many artists began to use photographs as sources for paintings. Often, the photographs were not simply appropriated as tools in picture making but were themselves the subject matter, resulting in paintings that are about imagery and the mediation of such images. The exhibition also reflects on the potency of the media and the construction of celebrity. Many artists used photos of celebrities as the basis of their works, and several illustrate a degree of nostalgia, even for the very recent past.
JOSHUA DONKOR: I HAVE MORE SOULS THAN ONE: a display of recent works by a Ghanian-British painter who grew up in Bath. His work is deeply personal, using portraiture to reflect family history, identities and experiences, exploring how feelings of belonging and estrangement play out through different generations.
Donkor approaches portraiture as a collaborative exercise between him and his sitters. He works with the subjects of his paintings to identify objects and images that convey their personal narrative, including family photos, fabrics and personal belongings. Using a range of different painting and printing techniques, he literally embeds the histories of his sitters into the work, combining their image with layered visual references to the items they picked out together. The images are built up with glimpses of the figure’s homes and families: two crucial elements that inform identity. The resulting works are complex representations of multiple generations, time periods and memories that have informed the past, and continue to influence the future.
WATCH OUT FOR
- CHRISTINE ALLISON: DRAWING THE LINE 5-27 APRIL Christine would describe drawing as her first language; sometimes realistic, sometimes abstracted; drawing underpins all of Christine’s work. SOU’-SOU’-WEST CONTEMPORARY ARTS GALLERY, BRIDPORT, DORSET https://sousouwest.co.uk/pages/drawing-the-line
- SANCTUARY: GROUP EXHIBITION UNTIL 27 APRIL This exhibition honours the beauty of the natural world while exploring the broader idea of sanctuary, whether it is a quiet place or safe space, a beloved person, or an activity that brings solace and peace. HEART OF THE TRIBE, GLASTONBURY, SOMERSET https://heartofthetribe.com/event/sanctuary/
The Floating Circle 