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) POWER OF 10: GROUP SHOW
31 MAY – 14 JUNE, CREATE CENTRE, BRISTOL
A newly formed group of 10 local artists coming together for their first exhibition. Visitors can expect a vibrant tapestry of artistic expression, encompassing a diverse range of disciplines including painting, sculpture, photography, textiles and video. “The POWER of 10” promises something for every art enthusiast.
Meet the artists at Preview on 30 May 5-7.30pm and on 7 June 12-3pm.
2) APERTURE OF DREAMS: GROUP SHOW
UNTIL 20 JUNE, BROWNSTON GALLERY, MODBURY, DEVON
This is an exhibition of four artists who have each created a unique collection of paintings to immerse the spectator in their storytelling, taking them on a colourful and magical journey:
Kate Westbrook, a talented musician and artist, has produced a wonderful series of detailed paintings depicting scenes relating to the myth about Diana and Actaeon.
Fernando Asian, a popular surrealist artist who was forced to flee Venezuela in 2019 due to political unrest, is showcasing some astonishing large paintings full of the intensity and vivid colours that he is famous for internationally.
New to the gallery, Connor McIntyre is well known for his acting roles in theatre, film and television and only discovered his artistic talent at the age of fifty. The paintings that Connor is showing are inspired by the “shifting weather systems of the mind – where memory, myth and melancholy collide. They invite viewers to navigate a terrain that’s as much about feeling as form.” His work is held in private and institutional collections worldwide.
The second artist also exhibiting for the first time, is Jo Thorne who specialises in contemporary expressionist painting. Jo describes her work as “visual narratives that explore human connection through abstract painting and experimentation.” She cleverly uses colour and expressive mark-making to spark a connection with the viewer.
3) DAVID MARL ARTWORKS
UNTIL 28 JUNE, SLADE CENTRE, GILLINGHAM, DORSET
“I have always been interested in story. I have been influenced by a range of artists and writers that tend to use narrative as part of their work: Blake, Palmer, Spencer. Always in landscape there is a story to be told or a scene that might inspire the viewer to imagine some narrative of their own. I enjoy creating a scene using components that I have been thinking about or are an important part of my life. Then like a subconscious jigsaw puzzle I put the pieces together.
When I am present in particular places, when I can feel the landscape and myself as part of it, then that is what I describe as the ‘thin place’. The Celts originated the term, referring to places where they felt that they had a particular spiritual impact as ‘thin places’.”
4) SUZANNE BLANK REDSTONE: CATCHING LIGHT
UNTIL 28 JUNE, CLOSE LTD, HATCH BEAUCHAMP, SOMERSET
A major exhibition celebrating six decades of work by Suzanne Blank Redstone. On the occasion of the artist’s 80th birthday this year, Catching Light is an overdue survey giving unprecedented insight into Redstone’s influential, lively and vivid contributions to painting, sculpture and public art. Rooted in the mid-century aesthetic principles of modernism and the Bauhaus school’s egalitarian approach to creating Gesamtkunstwerk, Redstone’s works harness the potent possibilities in light, geometry and colour, prompting dazzling and perception-bending effects in the viewer, and often evoking strong sensory and emotional responses. Sharing affinities with several movements, including Geometric Abstraction, Light and Space and Op Art, this exhibition repositions Redstone’s importance as a key figure in contemporary art.
Catching Light includes explorations with plaster reliefs from the late 1960’s, delicate, handcrafted pieces where colour is applied to create reflective contrasts against white surfaces, to produce subtle illusions of light and colour. A collection of Redstone’s light sculptures, often intended as proposals for building façades, are also on show. Creating environments that interact with light as it changes throughout the day,these works engage with geometric abstraction, featuring curvilinear forms that blur the boundaries between geometry and biomorphism. Redstone’s exploration of these themes places her within the context of a male-dominated tradition while also highlighting her distinct voice within it.
5) SPRING 2025: MIXED EXHIBITION
UNTIL 6 JULY, TINCLETON GALLERY, DORCHESTER, DORSET
This exhibition is a mixed show from the gallery artists. This includes Philippa Headley’s impressionistic landscapes in oil complementing Kim Pragnell’s atmospherics coastscapes, also in oil. Printmakers: Mary Gillett’s pieces from her own county of Devon or elsewhere in the southwestern peninsular and Bristol-based Ruth Ander contributes her limpid nature-drenched southwestern monoprints. Some lovely reduction linocuts by Diana Croft evoke the coast perfectly. Many other gallery and guest artists will also be exhibiting their various sculptures, ceramics, and oils including Johannes von Stumm, Alison Wear, Almuth Tebbenhoff, Sarah Batt, and the textiles of Imogen Bittner. The Ukrainian artist Iryna Miro who is currently a refugee because of the Russian invasion and is temporarily based in Dorset also makes a guest appearance.
6) FIRST IMPRESSIONS: PRINTERS’ PROOFS OF WORKS BY GREAT 20TH CENTURY ARTISTS
UNTIL 6 JULY, VICTORIA ART GALLERY, BATH
A rare behind-the-scenes look into the art of printmaking in this exhibition. Featuring works by leading figures such as Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Bridget Riley, and Peter Blake, First Impressions showcases dozens of printers’ proofs — the experimental stages of the printmaking process that are rarely seen by the public. These works reveal the trial-and-error journey behind some of the most iconic prints of modern art, highlighting the expert craftsmanship of the printers who collaborate closely with artists.
Discover how, during the proofing stage, artists and master printers work together to perfect each piece, experimenting with different inks, papers, and adjustments to the printing plates. While trial proofs are often discarded, the exhibition brings together a remarkable collection of surviving examples, shedding light on the immense skill and patience involved in their creation.
Among the highlights are twelve prints by Lucian Freud, one of Britain’s most celebrated figurative artists, including etchings of performance artist Leigh Bowery, whose work is currently featured at Tate Modern. Also on display is Bridget Riley’s 1972 Coloured Greys series — mesmerising Op art screenprints that seem to ripple and flow before the eyes — and works from Peter Blake’s Alice in Wonderland series, created during his Ruralist period when he worked near Bath.
7) THE VALLEY: ART ON THE BORDER – A CULTURAL HISTORY OF MARSLAND. MIXED EXHIBITION
UNTIL 6 JULY, MUSEUM OF BARNSTAPLE AND NORTH DEVON
Being Here charts the artist’s compelling figurative practice, from the 1990s to today.
This exhibition, curated by the artist Peter Stiles, explores the Marsland Valley, its heritage and the people who have been inspired by its charms – both in the past and in the present. Marsland Valley has a history of attracting pacifists, artists and individuals who seemed to value the Valley’s isolation from broader society. These people have lived and worked alongside local families who have lived there for generations.
The exhibition features works by artists including the English painter and decorative artist, Dora Carrington. Carrington is remembered in part for her association with the Bloomsbury group and the unconventional, Bohemian way of life which came to define its members. Carrington was largely overlooked as an artist during her lifetime – she rarely exhibited and did not sign her work – yet she is now considered a significant contributor to Modern British art.
Other artists featured in the exhibition include the painter Gillian Ayres, who owned a studio in the Valley from which she created the large vibrant canvases that earned her a Turner Prize nomination; her former husband and fellow abstract painter, Henry Mundy; the writer Ronald Duncan who enjoyed success in 1950s with West Ends plays and a TV show based on his newspaper column about the lives of North Devon villagers; the documentary photographer, James Ravilious, whose iconic images of North Devon life feature in the Museum’s own permanent collection; painter and garden photographer Andrew Lawson; animation artist, Petra Freeman; and contemporary sculptor, Briony Lawson, whose work is heavily influenced by the wild North Devon landscape where she was born.
LAST CHANCE TO SEE
UNTIL 3 JUNE: ANDREA JENKINS: UNA SONRISA Colour, shape and composition with rhythms of Latin, jazz and Afro-Caribbean music. SHAFTESBURY ARTS CENTRE, DORSET https://shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk/events/una-sonrisa-andrea-jenkins/
WATCH OUT FOR
- ANDY ROLLO: OUR TIME ON EARTH UNTIL 7 JUNE A collection of paintings and an installation of a large-scale drawing as well as mixed media collages, photographs and animation which the artist has worked on in collaboration with his family members. YEOVIL ARTSPACE, SOMERSET https://yeovilartspace.uk/andyrollo/
- GEORGINA KING: THE SACRED ACRE UNTIL 21 JUNE This exhibition invites viewers to engage with this transitional space where the land meets the sea and to reflect on how we can reclaim the sense of the sacred in nature and ourselves. ACEARTS, SOMERTON, SOMERSET https://www.acearts.co.uk/2025-2/
- MICHELLE DASH & PENELOPE O’GARA: FREAKS & FAIRIES UNTIL 24 JUNE Painting, sculptures and textile works depicting magical beings and unusual oddities from otherworldly realms, dreams and stories… HEART OF THE TRIBE, GLASTONBURY, SOMERSET https://www.heartofthetribe.com/events-and-exhibitions/freaks-faries-mort-sparrow-michelle-dash
- JAMES RAVILIOUS: AN ENGLISH EYE UNTIL 28 JUNE Selection of work by James Ravilious, renowned photographer of rural life and one of Devon’s best-loved artists. THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, HONITON, DEVON https://www.thelmahulbert.com/exhibitions/james-ravilious-english-eye
The Floating Circle 