Spike Island

21/10/2026

🪨Beverly Buchanan: A Life of making
A series delving into the many facets of Beverly Buchanan (1940–2015) over her four decade career, spanning painting, sculpture, video, photography, poetry, and environmental works.

“I don’t want to be a doctor who paints. I want to be a painter”
—Beverly Buchanan

Beverly Buchanan was born in North Carolina in 1940, and grew up on the campus of South Carolina State College, where her father was Dean of Agriculture. She initially trained in medicine and public health, first at Bennett College (1962) and later at Columbia University (1969). She began her formal artistic career in New York in the early 1970s.

Her cast-concrete ‘Frustula’ sculptures, begun in the late 1970s, are indicative of these early formative years. Cast from moulds of milk cartons and dislodged bricks, Buchanan explored her interest in the ‘aesthetic qualities of decay’. Drawing inspiration from the landscape of deteriorating buildings around New York in the 1970s, these works show Buchanan’s keen dual interest in structure and ruination.

Beverly Buchanan: ‘Weathering’ is exhibiting now at Spike Island, 26 September 2026 to 31 January 2027.

Wednesdays to Sundays, 12-5pm.

Beverly Buchanan: ‘Weathering’ at Spike Island was developed in collaboration with Haus am Waldsee (Berlin) and 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine (Metz), and will tour to Vleeshal (Middelburg) from 14 March to 27 June 2027.

The exhibition is generously supported by Art Fund, the Henry Moore Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and the Beverly Buchanan Exhibition Circle. With thanks to the Estate of Beverly Buchanan.

Image captions:
1. and 2. Beverly Buchanan: 'Weathering' (2026). Launch night at Spike Island, Bristol. Photography by Dan Weill, images courtesy Spike Island
3. Beverly Buchanan, Untitled (Maquette) (ca.1970s). Collection of Lorenzo Legarda Leviste and Fahad Mayet. © The Estate of Beverly Buchanan. Photography by Andrew Judd

20/10/2026

Join us for tours, collective gardening, workshops and more this October!

☕ Good Morning Spike Island! Coffee Morning and Tour
Thursday 22 October 2026, 10–11.30am
Local residents and community members are welcomed for a relaxed morning with free coffee and a tour of our exhibition

🏆 Night of the Fellows
Thursday 22 October 2026, 5–8pm
An evening of presentations and installations wishing best of luck to our outgoing and incoming Fellows

✏️ Writing Art Writing Art Writing: To shimmer between senses
Saturday 24 October 2026, 2–5pm
A workshop exploring relationships between art and writing, presented by WITTA (Writing In / To / Through Art)

🌻🪨 Flowers and Rock: Collective Gardening
Friday 30 October 2026, 11.30am–12.30pm
A relaxed social and collective gardening session for local residents and community members, as we welcome in a new season and prepare our garden for the coming year

🔍 BSL Exhibition Tour of Beverly Buchanan: 'Weathering'
Saturday 31 October 2026, 2–3pm
Martin Glover, architect and art facilitator, leads a British Sign Language tour of our current exhibition by artist Beverly Buchanan

Book your place today at the link in our bio 🔗

Image credit
Beverly Buchanan: 'Weathering' (2026). Launch night at Spike Island, Bristol. Photography by Dan Weill, images courtesy Spike Island

16/10/2026

🗓️ COMING UP: BSL Exhibition Tour

Join us for a British Sign Language (BSL) exhibition tour of our current exhibition, Beverly Buchanan: 'Weathering', led by architect and art facilitator Martin Glover.

Designed for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, this free tour will be delivered entirely in BSL, offering an in-depth exploration of two major new exhibitions.

Saturday 31 October, 2–3pm
Free, booking required

This tour is for BSL users and companions only. Please note there will be no voiceover interpretation. All film works are subtitled.

🔗 Book your place via the link in bio

15/10/2026

🔦 Spike Island Exhibition Services Spotlight: Prem Sahib, ‘Kin’

In June, Spike Island Exhbition Services (SIES) technicians supplied and installed a complex projection and audio system for Prem Sahib: Kin, at the Phillida Reid gallery in London.

Transposed from a low-resolution online clip of a dog amongst the rubble of a city under siege, Prem Sahib’s installation combines digital animation, projection mapping and sound, creating a distorted shadow of a stray dog moving across the floors and walls, and a soundscape of low and high frequency sweeps.

As a new version of the work goes on view at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, we wanted to spotlight the technical work that goes into a complex and exciting build like this.

💡 Got an exhibition idea that needs expert hands to bring it to life? Get in touch with the Spike Island Exhibition Services today via the link in our bio

12/10/2026

SPIKE ISLAND ASSOCIATES: October and November events 🍂

Join Spike Island Associates this Autumn as we explore the theme 'Architectures of Memory', inspired by our current exhibition by artist Beverly Buchanan

Upcoming events:

✏️ Away Day: London & Drawing Matter
A group visit to Drawing Matter and other London galleries, exploring the crossovers between drawing, architecture and artistic practice

🗣️ Divergent Practices: Non-Performance, Invisibility and Aliveness
A lecture by artist James Jordan Johnson, exploring personal and collective memorialisation

🪨 Gathering Ground: A workshop on place and practice
A workshop in writing and making by Rose Higham-Stainton, exploring the relationship between place and creative practice

🤝 One-to-one: Hannah Woods
Join Associate Curator at Whitechapel Hannah Woods for a one-to-one session

Join Spike Island Associates today via the link in our bio for free access to these events and much more 🔗

1. Image courtesy Rose Higham Stainton
2. Image courtesy James Jordan Johnson
3. Image courtesy Hannah Woods
4. Image courtesy Drawing Matter

09/10/2026

Introducing the 2026–27 Spike Island Graduate Fellows

Ahead of the month's Night of the Fellows evening, we’re thrilled to welcome four exceptional emerging artists to our studio community. Each will spend a year at Spike Island developing their practice within Bristol’s rich creative ecosystem:

Tess Foley (UWE BA Photography)
Foley is a fine-art photographer based in Bristol. Her practice is situated between the darkroom and out in the elements, where she allows the metallic plates that frame her photographs to develop unique patinas, reflecting the core concerns of her work: sensitivity and strength.

Martha Fox (UWE BA Fine Art and Writing)
Fox is a conceptually driven artist who investigates societal structures, metaphors and what it means to be human. Her work presents as installations, happenings, socially engaged practice and performance. Community and audiences are an integral element of her practice and process.

Charli-Ann Padilla (UWE BA Fine Art)
Padilla’s practice is possible because of paint. In her experience, paint has been a medium that has taught her, while also allowing her to grow and make mistakes. Now entering the edge of the never-ending void of her imagination, she is experimenting with other materials and methods, searching for a new perspective.

Charli-Ann has also been announced as the recipient of the Freelands Painting Prize 2026. This award by the Freelands Foundation celebrates outstanding painting by final-year students at art schools and universities across the UK. It was previously awarded to outgoing Spike Island graduate fellow Nahraine Al-Khafaji.

George Morgan (Bath Spa BA Creative Arts Practice)
George works responsively across sculpture, drawing and collage. He leans into physical processes of accumulating, deconstructing, organising, and reconfiguring material. Fragments of studio debris – tape, offcuts, and other overlooked material – accumulate over time and are repurposed into new arrangements.

We warmly welcome Tess, Martha, Charli-Ann, and George to Spike Island and look forward to supporting their practices throughout the year ahead.

🔗 Read more via our website news section:
https://www.spikeisland.org.uk/news/announcing-the-2026-27-spike-island-graduate-fellows/

You can learn more about their practices at our upcoming Night of the Fellows 2026 on Thursday 22 October, where our outgoing Fellows will share their experiences, and pass the batton to the new 2026–27 cohort, with a group exhibition of work by all the Fellows.
https://www.spikeisland.org.uk/programme/events/night-of-the-fellows-2026/

Image credits:
1. Martha Fox, 'I'll Carry You' (2024). Spike Island Open Studios 2024
2. Charli-Ann Padilla, 'Cut the rug' (2024). Installation view at UWE Fine Art BA Studios, Spike Island
3. George Morgan, 'Install Collage' (2026). Courtesy of the artist
4. Ear5 Collective (Martha Fox and Anna Kruml), 'Bus Week' (2026)
5. Tess Foley, Installation view, Arnolfini, Bristol (2026). Photography by Tess Foley
6. Photography courtesy of UWE Bristol

08/10/2026

Happy birthday Beverly Buchanan! 🎈

On what would have been her 86th birthday, we're enjoying some of the self portraits and ephemera included in Buchanan's current exhibition at Spike Island, 'Weathering' 🪞

Come and explore Buchanan's work for free at Spike Island until January 2027

Learn more about our exhibitions via our website 💻

Beverly Buchanan: 'Weathering' (2026). Installation at Spike Island, Bristol. Images courtesy Spike Island

07/10/2026

Open Call 2028: South West-Based Artist Commission 🤝

Spike Island is pleased to invite applications from artists based in the South West of England to develop a major new commission to be presented in our galleries in summer 2028.

This is an exciting opportunity for an artist to realise ambitious new work(s) that they might not otherwise have the resources or opportunity to make.

The successful applicant will receive:
📌 An artist fee of £4,000
📌 Production budget of £8,500 (exclusive of VAT)
📌 Curatorial and technical support from Spike Island’s team
📌 Access to Spike Island’s residency studio and edit suite

We welcome proposals from artists working in any medium and at any stage of their career

Deadline to apply: Sunday 13 December 2026

Apply today at the link in our bio 🔗

Image credit: Young In Hong, 'Five Acts' (2024). Installation view at Spike Island. Photograph by Dan Weill

06/10/2026

From Spike Island to Temple Quarter

Spike Island Exhibition Services has supported the installation of two new permanent public artworks at the University of Bristol’s new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, by artists with close connections to Spike Island.

Ellie Shipman’s 'Soft Monument' and Wood & Harrison’s 'We Apologise for Any Inconvenience Caused' are now part of the campus’s new public art programme. Both artists have longstanding connections to Spike: Wood & Harrison are long-time Spike Island studio holders, while Ellie has exhibited at Open Studios and worked with our audiences through I Am Making Art.

The wider project also includes Wild Spaces, an 18-month commission with our partners Room 13 Hareclive exploring the relationship between the new campus, the River Avon and Bristol’s natural environment.

We’re pleased to see artists from the Spike Island community contributing to this exciting new chapter in Bristol’s cultural landscape, and to have our Exhibition Services team help bring these ambitious projects into the city.

Tonight, the invites the city to celebrate these new public artworks at Introducing Public Art at Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus. The event will offer an opportunity to experience the works, followed by a panel discussion exploring the ideas, collaborations and creative processes behind the commissions.

🔗 Read the full story:
www.spikeisland.org.uk/news/spike-island-exhibition-services-installs-new-public-artworks-at-temple-quarter/

Spike Island Exhibition Services has supported new public artworks at the University of Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.

01/10/2026

Beverly Buchanan: 'Weathering' is now open at Spike Island 🎉

Visit our galleries every Wednesday to Sunday, 12–5pm to explore the life and work of Beverly Buchanan 🪨

Plus, join us for exhibition tours, writing workshops, kids art club, collective gardening sessions inspired by Buchanan's practice this October!

Learn more about our exhibitions and book your place at an upcoming event via our website 🔗

Beverly Buchanan: 'Weathering' (2026). Launch night at Spike Island, Bristol. Photography by Dan Weill, images courtesy Spike Island