The best art exhibitions coming up in Bristol and the west country – 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
173 Annual Open Exhibition
12 September 2026 – 3 January 2027
The RWA Annual Exhibition showcases over 500 contemporary works within our historic galleries.
Featuring both emerging talent and established names, spanning painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, architecture, sculpture, and mixed-media installation – It represents some of the most exciting artists working across the UK and beyond today.
(image above: Embracing Imperfection (2026), Hajnal Vegh)
Candidates Exhibition 2026
12 September – 18 October 2026, Kenny Gallery
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Compiled by Sue Quirk and Laurel Smart
1) BEYOND HORIZONS SCULPTURE EXHIBITION
5 SEPTEMBER UNTIL 4 OCTOBER, STOBERRY PARK GARDEN, WELLS, SOMERSET
An ambitious new sculpture exhibition is set to transform one of Somerset’s most beautiful private gardens into an inspiring celebration of art, landscape and generosity.
From 5 September to 4 October, the award-winning Stoberry Park Garden, overlooking Wells Cathedral, will host the inaugural Beyond Horizons Sculpture Exhibition, a month-long event bringing together more than 70 sculptors from across Somerset, the United Kingdom and beyond. Created to become an annual cultural highlight for the county, Beyond Horizons invites visitors to experience contemporary sculpture in an extraordinary natural setting, where every path reveals a new discovery and every artwork begins a conversation between creativity and the landscape.
The exhibition has been carefully curated around the theme of Connectivity – exploring the many ways art can connect people with nature, with each other, with ideas and with place. Set amongst sweeping lawns, woodland walks, mature trees and panoramic views across the Somerset countryside, each sculpture has been thoughtfully positioned to create a dialogue with its surroundings.
Throughout the exhibition, local charities will play an integral role in welcoming visitors, with dedicated Charity Partnership Days helping to raise vital funds and awareness for organisations that make an extraordinary difference. Every visit becomes an opportunity not only to enjoy exceptional art but also to support remarkable causes that strengthen local communities.
2) COLOUR: MIXED EXHIBITION
UNTIL 6 SEPTEMBER, ROYAL ALBERT MEMORIAL MUSEUM & ART GALLERY, EXETER
We live in a dazzling kaleidoscope of shades and hues. Colour is key to helping us make sense of the world, used to communicate by wildlife, plants and people alike. Colour is more than just something we see – it is something we feel and sometimes even smell. It has the power to symbolise who we are and what we believe, and it is at the heart of some of our most enduring traditions.
This exhibition brings together over 150 objects spanning art, science, nature and cultural histories. It explores a spectacular world of colour – how we see it, how it is made, how it is used and how meaning can become attached to it. Artworks by Hokusai, Kandinsky, Bridget Riley and Andy Warhol are on display alongside examples of exquisitely crafted decorative ceramics. A diamante-studded Trinidadian carnival costume and Victorian mourning dress illustrate how colour can imbue clothing with cultural significance, while examples of pre-historic gold jewellery show the value of colour across millennia.
A family-friendly exhibition packed with vibrant objects, interactive displays and thought-provoking exhibits, this is a chance to see colour in all its glory.
3) KATIE WHITFORD: SMALL THINGS
6 – 10 SEPTEMBER, MOUNT WITHOUT, BRISTOL
Small Things is an exhibition of quilts by artist Katie Whitford as a printmaker, Katie began working with textiles in 2023, approaching fabric as an extension Trai of her drawing practice. Using layered textiles sourced from clothing offcuts, along with appliqué and hand stitching, she creates intimate compositions that gently reflect the objects, moments, and quiet details that shape everyday life. Texture, colour, and thread bring these forms to life, transforming familiar domestic items into reflective forms shaped by memory and use. This new collection of smaller works encourages close looking, drawing attention to the beauty and significance of the overlooked. Retaining the immediacy of drawing while embracing the warmth and physical presence of fabric, the works in Small Things continue Katie’s ongoing exploration of domestic space, memory, and longing, inviting viewers to slow down, look closely, and appreciate the small things we live alongside.
PV Sunday 6 September 2026 5-10pm
4) KAREN ROGERS ARTIST’S WALL
UNTIL 12 SEPTEMBER, PLOUGH ARTS CENTRE, GREAT TORRINGTON, DEVON
Karen Rogers is a North Devon-based artist, working from her own garden studio and as part of the New Atlantic Wave group of artists. Her practice is inspired by the ever-changing coastal landscape, resulting in expressive, textured mixed-media paintings that reflect the emotional resonance of colour, light and atmosphere. Drawing inspiration from both the dramatic scenery of Devon and memories of her worldwide travels, her work is vibrant, contemplative and deeply personal.
5) LOOK OUT: GROUP EXHIBITION
12 SEPTEMBER – 31 OCTOBER, CLOSE LTD, HATCH BEAUCHAMP, SOMERSET
An exhibition bringing together artists across generations and living and working in Britain. Their works explore the enduring presence of landscape as both a physical reality and a psychological space. Spanning one hundred years the exhibition traces a century of artistic engagement with the land, revealing how landscape continues to offer a place of reflection, resilience and renewal in times of profound change.
At a moment when the world feels increasingly unstable, environmentally, politically and socially, our internal landscapes are also shifting. The certainty of familiar structures and beliefs is continually challenged, leaving many of us searching for points of connection and grounding. Look Out proposes that nature and the changing seasons remain among the few constants we can rely upon. Landscape, in all its forms, becomes a source of comfort, continuity and belonging, a place where we can orientate ourselves amidst uncertainty.
The exhibition comprises selected works of David Abbott, Dien Berziga, Christabel Blackburn, Sarah Gillespie, Magnus Hammick, Ivon Hitchens, Lee Johnson, Charlotte Keates, Rob Lyon, Katherine Perrins, Ged Quinn, Myrna Quiñonez, Saad Qureshi, Harriet White.
Around this central dialogue unfolds a constellation of voices, each approaching landscape through different histories, experiences and materials. Whether through painting, sculpture, drawing or installation, the artists in Look Out reveal landscape as a site of memory, imagination, migration, ecology and emotional connection. Together, these artists offer multiple ways of seeing and understanding the world around us. Some reflect on inherited relationships to land and place. Others consider movement, displacement and the changing nature of belonging. Material, gesture, colour and form become languages through which these ideas are explored, carrying traces of encounter, memory and lived experience.
PV 2-4pm Saturday 12 September.
6) YASMIN DAVID: THE NATURE OF LIGHT
12 SEPTEMBER – 31 OCTOBER, THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, HONITON, DEVON
Solo exhibition by post-war British landscape painter Yasmin David (1939- 2009). Although Yasmin exhibited briefly at the Mall Galleries early in her career, after marrying, moving to Devon and raising a family, she chose not to exhibit publicly. Yet over more than fifty years, Yasmin created a deeply personal, luminous body of work, largely unseen during her lifetime. Yasmin lived and worked in South Devon for over fifty years. Her work explores the particular light and landscape near her home on the edge of Dartmoor. One of the few women working in landscape during the post-war period, David produced paintings which are both intimate and dramatic, emotional and turbulent, capturing the molten qualities of sky and land. They directly reference the unique relationship between the painter and the land.
7) HALIMA CASSELL EXHIBITION
UNTIL 27 SEPTEMBER, TATE, ST IVES, CORNWALL
Halima Casselluses clay, stone, wood, bronze and other materials to create works informed by architecture, mathematics and nature.
Born in Kashmir in 1975 and raised in the North West of England, Cassell takes inspiration from multicultural traditions of architectural carving and moulding in buildings such as cathedrals, churches and mosques. Her abstract shapes are equally informed by North African surface design and the geometric optical illusions of artists Bridget Riley and M.C. Escher. She also draws on mathematical systems of proportion such as the golden section.
Cassell works in a studio overlooking the Shropshire Hills. The natural world infuses her sculptures, from the shapes of pebbles and rock formations to the flow and ripple of water. Other works relate to the human body, suggesting fertility, birth and regeneration. Avoiding added colour, she picks a specific material for each work based on its natural hue and texture. Like St Ives artist Barbara Hepworth – a key influence for Cassell – she responds to the potential and limitations of each medium.
8) JONATHAN BALDOCK: HELD
UNTIL 28 SEPTEMBER, ARNOLFINI, BRISTOL
Arnolfini transforms into a colourful, immersive wilderness of nature and folklore this summer. Known for his striking installations, Jonathan Baldock combines ceramics, textiles and sound to create environments that are both playful and thought-provoking. His work draws on folklore, traditional craft and personal history, shaped by skills passed down through generations of making.
Held features a monumental wild bear sculpture, commissioned by Arnolfini. It invites visitors into a direct physical encounter — not to be held, but to hold us.
9) GILLIAN AYRES: A LIFE IN COLOUR
UNTIL 4 OCTOBER, THE BOX, PLYMOUTH
Gillian Ayres: A Life in Colour brings together 26 of Ayres’ vibrant paintings. Tracing her bold and expressive style, they span seven decades of creative practice. Known for her energetic brushwork and rich use of colour, the exhibition showcases the feeling and emotion that guided Ayres, giving you the chance to encounter the fearless experimentation and emotional intensity that defined her approach to painting. Ayres was a formidable and brilliant artist who came of age in a post-war British art world that was dominated by men. She remained entirely faithful to painting as it went in and out of fashion and the huge vibrant works she produced are a testament to her fearless and unwavering commitment.
10) ANGEL OTERO: AGUA SALADA
UNTIL 18 OCTOBER, HAUSER & WIRTH, BRUTON, SOMERSET
Known for his physically immersive approach to paint as material, Otero transforms the medium itself—scraping, layering and peeling dried oil paint to create richly textured compositions that hover between abstraction and figuration. Moving his studio practice from Brooklyn NY and Puerto Rico temporarily to Somerset, the residency provides Otero with the opportunity to continue his exploration of memory, place and meaning in the context of a new environment.
‘I have come to understand place as a living presence within the work—not merely a backdrop, but a condition that shapes perception. Every environment holds a quiet residue of light, architecture, weather, and history. When I shift my surroundings, it stirs fragments of memory that surface through process rather than depiction. The work becomes a meeting point between where I am and where I have been. The studio becomes porous, and what lies beyond inevitably seeps into the painting.’
WATCH OUT FOR
AARDMAN: BEHIND THE SCENES UNTIL 13 SEPTEMBER 50 Years of Aardman in Bristol. MSHED, BRISTOL
- AARDMAN: BEHIND THE SCENES UNTIL 13 SEPTEMBER 50 Years of Aardman in Bristol. MSHED, BRISTOL
- SAELIA APARICIO: A JOYFUL PARASITE UNTIL 4 OCTOBER A major new commission using sculpture, mural drawings and installation to create an imagined ecosystem of curious hybrid creatures. BURTON AT BIDEFORD, DEVON
The Floating Circle 