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
Soft Power: lives told through textile art
17 May – 10 August 2025
The exhibition Soft Power – lives told through textile art highlights how cloth can play a unique role in telling our stories and is used to communicate life’s journey. As something we encounter daily, cloth creates an immediate connection between the artist and the viewer, making these stories feel familiar and relatable.
The artworks focus on storytelling. They bring to light personal and collective experiences, from the autobiographical and hidden struggles of marginalised individuals to stories shaped by major events like the pandemic.
The works share intimate and emotional portrayals of self-expression while making bold statements about empowerment and change. They highlight how cloth can connect women across cultures, recording and reflecting their experiences.
The exhibition is curated by internationally-renowned textile art pioneer, Professor Alice Kettle, with curator of international textiles Professor Lesley Millar MBE.
Connecting Threads
06 May – 06 July 2025 – Kenny Gallery, free entry
Connecting Threads is a reflective exhibition of meditative rhythms and intricate mappings by four Academicians connected by their use of the drawn, painted and sewn line.
Featuring:
Fiona Robinson PRWA
Malcolm Ashman RWA RBA
Vera Boele-Keimer RWA
Lawrence Nash RWA
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Compiled by Sue Quirk and Laurel Smart
1) MAXINE FOSTER: UMBILICAL
2-24 MAY, BLACK SWAN ARTS, FROME
Maxine Foster’s work draws inspiration from the urban and natural environments, connected by an invisible umbilical cord. Time has profoundly affected her practice – having had one foot in the city and one foot on the coast since birth – which has emulated with the ebb and flow of the tide. The accumulation of Foster’s work is an ingrained, intuitive response to what is in front of her. She goes with the flow: the flow between the two personalities of her practice, reflecting their connections through water sources.
She works mainly in the mediums of monotype, intaglio and relief, occasionally introducing paint, frequently using palimpsest within the complexity of her multi-layered pieces. Inspired by her surroundings, these seemingly disparate urban and natural environments are linked by decades of unique erosion and decay, whether caused by natural or man-made interventions. Foster builds up complex layers, combining multiple print processes: layering up the substrate with dry-point etching, carborundum and collagraph, chine collé and monoprint collage.
2) ROSE-MARIE CALDECOTT: EVEN IN THE DARK
2-31 MAY, GREEN HILL ARTS, MORETONHAMPSTEAD, DEVON
This exhibition is not merely a collection of paintings, but an embodied experience of the artist’s journey. Emotional trauma is often raw and beyond words, and Rose-Marie’s works give voice to these experiences. Darkness, though initially overwhelming, gradually reveals itself to be alive and dynamic. Her paintings ask: is this what it means to truly dwell in darkness—not to shut it out, but to stay with it, to live with it?
The gallery will feature subtly shifting lighting, transforming the atmosphere as you move through the space, offering new perspectives of each painting. Visitors can also experience the artwork accompanied by specially composed music, enhancing their connection to the perspectives within the pieces and to the artist herself.
Each of Rose-Marie’s paintings is a testament to the process of remembering, the emotional weight of grief, and the passage of time. They evoke the artist’s inner journey – each brushstroke a reflection of processing pain and finding light in the darkness. There is a sense of movement in each piece, as if the viewer is witnessing a constant flux, a visual memoir of a life lost and rediscovered through art.
3) NORTH SOMERSET ARTS WEEK
3-11 MAY, 39 VENUES ACROSS NORTH SOMERSET
Over 200 local artists will be opening up their homes and studios or gathering in shared venues to show their latest work. North Somerset Arts is a non-profit organisation, whose aim is to celebrate creativity and advocate the cultural value and positive impact it has on the communities in the region. Arts Week is the flagship biennial event showcasing artists and makers, alternating with the Member’s Exhibition, which will be in May 2026.
4) SPRING INTO SUMMER: OPEN EXHIBITION
5-17 MAY, HERITAGE COURTYARD GALLERY, WELLS, SOMERSET
A collaboration with A2 Gallery, showcasing a range of talented West Country artists and makers, work in 2D and £D, applied arts and fine arts in a range of forms including painting, sculpture, photography, textiles, multimedia, jewellery, glass and ceramics. Private view:
Saturday 3 May.
5) SANDY CREIGHTON: MYSTERIES OF THE FAMILIAR
10-25 MAY, HOURS, BRISTOL
Sandy records everyday objects and events and presents them in a way that reveals their hidden strangeness, beauty and significance. His strategies include chance procedures and unconscious promptings.
He uses drawing, digital imagery, video, sound, and mixed media.
His current focus is on digital drawings of urban street scenes.
Launch event Friday 9th May. Open Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th 11am -5 pm. thereafter by arrangement until Sunday 25th May free.
6) JENNY KEOGH: INSIDE OUT
UNTIL 24 MAY, CREATIVE INNOVATION CENTRE, TAUNTON, SOMERSET
An intimate and evocative exhibition showcasing the vibrant and dynamic paintings of Jenny Keogh. Known for her ability to explore the profound relationship between colour and form, Keogh’s work transcends the traditional boundaries of landscape painting. For her, colour and form are not merely visual elements, but an expression of the inner emotional and psychological landscapes that shape her world. Inside Out offers a glimpse into these internal landscapes, where the outer world is reimagined through the lens of personal experience and deep emotional resonance.
Each piece in the exhibition invites the viewer to embark on a journey into Keogh’s inner world, as she masterfully plays with hue, tone, and contrast to reveal the complexities of human emotion. Her works are as much about the feeling of light as they are about the spaces it inhabits, creating a dynamic dialogue between the internal and external worlds.
7) BARBARA WALKER: BEING HERE
UNTIL 25 MAY, ARNOLFINI, BRISTOL
Being Here charts the artist’s compelling figurative practice, from the 1990s to today.
Following a hugely successful run at The Whitworth Being Here presents almost 60 extraordinary artworks, including rarely seen early paintings of Walker’s family, friends and community in her home city of Birmingham, along with her Turner Prize nominated monumental drawing series Burden of Proof (2022-23), which illustrates the impact on the lives of those affected by the Windrush scandal.
For over twenty-five years, Walker has been making intensely observed and empathetic figurative work that creates space for Black presence, power and belonging. Ranging from delicate graphite drawings on archival documents to embossed reliefs spotlighting marginalised Black figures in old Master paintings, Walker tackles wide-ranging themes such as the policing and surveillance of Black life, twentieth-century war histories and immigration to challenge conventions of representation and the histories they are rooted in.
“To be an artist to create in times of adversity, is, I believe to be optimistic. In my work as an artist, I have sought to make ‘positive images’, or perhaps images that will have a positive impact. I love working with people who are not used to having their voices heard. People who are often made visible in only the worst ways. I want to help make people visible in the best ways possible, by creating affirming images that speak of and to humanity.”
LAST CHANCE TO SEE
4 MAY: INADVERTENT: GROUP SHOW 16 painters responding to the writing of Karl Ove Knausgard. THE LAUNDRETTE, BRISTOL https://thelaunderette.org/
WATCH OUT FOR
- DARCY WHENT: TELL TALES 2-8 MAY A body of work that explores the fragile relationship between memory, truth, and storytelling. CENTRESPACE, BRISTOL https://www.centrespace.org.uk/whats-on
- CAROLINE LIDDINGTON: A FEAST OF COLOUR 3-18 MAY The exhibition will consist of three main themes: Interiors and objects, land and seascapes, plus animals and fish.
- SOU’-SOU’-WEST GALLERY, BRIDPORT, DORSET https://sousouwest.co.uk/pages/a-feast-of-colour
- PHILIP SUTTON: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST – 70 YEARS OF SELF-PORTRAITS UNTIL 11 MAY Sutton’s love of theatre and Shakespeare in particular manifests in costumes, hats and flamboyant birds in his paintings but most of all in his marvellously expressive face. SLADERS YARD, BRIDPORT, DORSET https://sladersyard.co.uk/philip-sutton-ra/
- SUZANNE BETHELL: SENSING COLOUR UNTIL 12 MAY Paintings which channel energy in motion. Through an interplay of colour, mark and form they capture potent emotional experiences and psychological states. PENWITH GALLERY, ST IVES, CORNWALL https://penwithgallery.com/exhibition/suzanne-bethell/
The Floating Circle 