Spike Island to open three exhibitions in February

Through a diverse programme of free major exhibitions, special events and ancillary onsite and online activities – as well as housing artists in 70 subsidised studios within their 80,000 square foot building – Spike Island is a mainstay of art and culture production and promotion within Bristol and the southwest.

Their commitment to championing work from underrepresented contemporary artists at a local, national, and international level is reflected in the three concurrent exhibitions that will be opening Spike Island’s spring 2023 programme on February 18.

Although the gallery does not curate work from artists with direct links to one another, placing different collections side by side within the cavernous space does often throw up interesting echoes that would not be seen in isolation.

The chosen artists exhibiting for this three month period are Howardena Pindell, Ayo Akingbade and an engagement commission from Rachal Bradley. Bristol24/7 finds out what to expect.

Howardena Pindell: A New Language

A New Language is comprised of a diverse selection of works on paper, paintings, and video made over Pindell’s illustrious and lengthy career (now spanning six decades).

She is a prominent American artist, activist, curator and teacher, born in Philadelphia, and moving to New York City in the 1960s, where she became the first Black female curator at the world-famous Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Howardena Pindell, Columbus (2020) , mixed media on canvas – photo: courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

Seeing Pindell’s work made over such a long period brought together allows the viewer to gain a sense of how the artist’s process developed over time. Best known for painting vast yet detailed abstract canvases in the 1970s, on which she experimented with processes, as well as with different materials such as glitter, talcum powder and perfume, she engaged with sociopolitical issues through a minimalist language.

In the decade that followed and beyond, Pindell’s work took on a more overtly political tone, addressing slavery, segregation, racism and violence against Black and Indigenous people, the impact of an imperalist past, the AIDS pandemic, and the climate emergency, among other themes.

Howardena Pindell, Text (1975), ink on paper, collage – photo: courtesy of the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, and Victoria Miro

Ayo Akingbade: Show Me The World Mister

London-based artist, writer and film director, Akingbade’s work has been shown at Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, MoMA Doc Fortnight and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, among others.

This new work was co-commissioned by Spike Island, Chisenhale Gallery, London, the Whitworth, The University of Manchester, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. It runs as part of the West of England Visual Arts Alliance programme, supported by Arts Council England.

Ayo Akingbade, The Fist (2022) – film still: courtesy of the artist

It comprises two distinct but related films, both shot on location in Nigeria: The Fist, and Faluyi, presented in the gallery divided by a screen.

The Fist looks at the first Guinness brewery to be built outside the UK and Ireland, constructed just outside Lagos in 1962. Seen through the prism of Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule (which occurred in 1960), the footage of factory workers going about their tasks points to the complex and deeply rooted sociopolitics underpinning production of this drink.

Faluyi was shot in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ondo State, where Akingbade’s parents were born. The film follows its protagonist Ife on a personal journey of familial connection amidst ancient ancestral lands.

Ayo Akingbade, The Fist (2022) – film still: courtesy of the artist

Rachal Bradley: Forecast

The Spike Island and Creative Youth Network Engagement Fellowship for Artists was awarded to London-based artist and writer, Rachal Bradley in 2022.

Forecast is an engagement commission that she has developed over the last year, in collaboration with emerging West of England-based artists and Creative Youth Network alumni Carlo Hornilla, Tommy Howlett, Lauren Jeffery and Calum McCutcheon.

The piece is a video work that explores the collective consciousness of crows and a mirrored pavilion sculpture suspended from the gallery ceiling. Viewers may see Forecast as an exploration of “the underlying functions of the psyche, the body and where these meet the reality around us”.

Rachal Bradley engagement commission – Forecast – photo: courtesy of the artist

The three concurrent exhibitions, Howardena Pindell: A New Languge, Ayo Akingbade: Show Me The World Mister and the Engagement Commission, Rachal Bradley: Forecast, are at Spike Island from February 18-May 21, Wednesday-Sunday 12-5pm (closed Monday and Tuesday). More information on the programme is available from www.spikeisland.org.uk. Gallery entry is free and you do not need to book.

Main photo: Ayo Akingbade (still from ‘The Fist’)

Read more: Exciting Spring programme opens at Spike Island

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