We look forward to welcoming you this weekend to our annual Open, an opportunity to explore the work that is made, exhibited and discussed here throughout the year by artists, designers and audiences. Below are just a few highlights that you can expect to find this weekend; take a look at the event page to view the whole programme. No matter what you see ... read on →

Bristol Diving School is an artist collective based both in Spike Island's artists' studios and in an independent space around the corner from us on Hanover Place. Communications manager Anna Searle Jones sat down with members Tom Prater and Holly Maries to discuss what they're up to at the moment. So, first of all, who or what is Bristol Diving School? Bristol Diving School is an artist-led initiative founded in ... read on →

To coincide with our Winter 2013 exhibitions, we are pleased to launch two new Spike Island Editions by Becky Beasley and Uriel Orlow. These beautiful limited editions offer the opportunity to own original artworks at an affordable price, and all proceeds from the sale of editions go to support Spike Island's exhibition programme. Uriel Orlow, Porous Present (#1)(2013) This image was taken by Uriel Orlow in 2009 during research in ... read on →

This collection of materials has been compiled by artist Uriel Orlow for anyone who would like to investigate further the themes and issues of his exhibition Back to Back. The list features a broad range of subject matter and formats that have informed his thinking, from history and architecture to memoir, poetry and cinema. Robert Bevan The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War Fethiye Çetin My Grandmother ... read on →

We are one of four visual arts organisations in the region currently working with Visual Arts South West and Annabel Jackson Associates Ltd. to undertake research into the quality of vistors’ experience. Spike Island’s vision is to position art as central to society, and our mission is to support artists and designers and to facilitate audiences’ encounters with ... read on →

Becky Beasley is a voracious reader, and she draws from a range of literary writers and texts, as well as canonical works of art and the history of photography, in making her work. The title of her current exhibition, Spring Rain, is taken from a short story by Bernard Malamud, for example.  The artist has suggested the following texts for those who would like to dig deeper into her interests ... read on →

Members of Spike Associates have been invited to undertake a series of residencies in the Curfew Tower, a unique location in Cushendall, Northern Ireland. Read more about the residencies. Holly Corfield Carr – author, Spike Associate and 2013 writer-in-residence at Spike Island – was the first to take up residence in the tower. She has just returned to Bristol after three ... read on →

Spike Island is committed to supporting emerging artists and their work, so we’re delighted to be hosting this year’s New Contemporaries when it opens in September. Since 1949 New Contemporaries has provided a critical platform for new and recent fine art graduates by means of an annual, nationally touring exhibition. Artists featured in previous editions of New Contemporaries include Becky Beasley, Florian Roithmayr and Charlie Tweed, as well as former Spike ... read on →

Researcher and writer Megan Wakefield has been based at Spike Island for the last few years as part of a PhD in collaboration with the University of the West of England. Her work investigated peer learning amongst artists outside of formal educational systems, whether within networks like Spike Associates or looser affiliations of individuals. Wakefield completed her PhD in late 2012 and here shares some of her experiences and ... read on →

Once a year the Spike Island community – staff, artists, designers, creative businesses and arts organsations based here – come together for what we call the Annual Event. This evening is an opportunity to share and celebrate the successes of the last 12 months, and earlier this month we heard great stories from individuals and groups about what they've been up to in 2012. One of the highlights of the ... read on →

Happy holidays from all of us at Spike Island! As we wind down after what has been an immensely fruitful year, we are grateful for the ideas, energy and enthusiasm that have surrounded us in 2012, and we look forward to an equally exciting 2013. Spike Café and reception will be closed the following dates: Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 December 2012 Saturday 22 December 2012 ... read on →

Last week's One Night Stand event was the last in a series of three evenings throughout the autumn that explored the grey areas between visual art and other contemporary practices: moving image, literature and performance. One Night Stand: Performance featured visual artists and writers who use performance in their work as well as live art and theatre makers. Though their approaches differed, contributors shared overlapping interests, for example in the ... read on →

Bristol-based artist cooperative the Collect are bringing Spoon Fed to Spike Island in December. Do you have a creative project that you need a small amount of funding for? This simple soup social and arts micro-funding event brings together local artists and audiences to make possible ambitious projects that might not otherwise be realised. Since Spoon Fed started in February, it’s raised over £900 to support five such undertakings, from ... read on →

Earlier this month we hosted One Night Stand: Readings, a salon evening featuring artists and writers who move across boundaries and genre. From a poet to a visual artist via a live performer with a sideline in fiction and a novelist who also produces plays, the event traced the many ways in which language is being used in contemporary creative practices. Each invited ... read on →

Our lovely Operations Manager Laura is going off on maternity leave soon, so we're looking for someone motivated, strategic and energetic to fill her shoes. If you have experience of managing a building, knowledge of health and safety regulations, and excellent communication skills, head over to our Opportunities page to find out more. read on →

Ivan Seal’s work documents a cryptic shadow world in which the familiar is made tantalisingly strange. The artist works quickly from memory to produce his enigmatic paintings, pulling in fragments of narratives, shapes, textures and colours that have made an impression; titles and audio pieces are often composed by randomly generating or shuffling text with a computer programme. Though his work doesn’t refer directly to any specific sources, Ivan has ... read on →

Spike Associates have been invited to undertake a year of month-long residencies in the Curfew Tower. This unique nineteenth century building sits at the centre of the village of Cushendall on the north east coast of Northern Ireland. Owned by Bill Drummond, the Tower has been run as an artist residency space since 1999, overseen by its trustees, Marcus Patton, Susan Philipsz, John Hirst and Drummond. The Curfew Tower has ... read on →

Artist Ivan Seal is at Spike Island this week to install his solo exhibition In Here Stands It, which opens on Friday evening. He sat down with director Helen Legg last night for a conversation on humour, language and “hairy sticks”. An excerpt from the interview will be used in the gallery guide, but you can listen to the whole thing here. read on →

After Spike Island hosted their first solo show in the UK earlier this year, we're delighted to hear that Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquel have won the 2012 Marcel Duchamp prize. Established in 2000 by the Adiaf (Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l’Art Français) in partnership with the Centre Pompidou and FIAC, the Prix Marcel Duchamp is intended 'to promote the international recognition of artists working in France, in ... read on →

Rogue Game brings together three different sports staged simultaneously in the same arena, with each game played according to its own rules. In doing so, Rogue Game constructs a setting that gives rise to moments of improvisation, subversion, ingenuity and chance. These clips are edits of footage captured during the Rogue Game, First Play live matches. As the games unfolded, they were streamed into the adjacent gallery ... read on →

Last week Bristol-based artist cooperative the Collect hosted an evening of fun and games, exploration and experimentation. Bringing together games made by and inspired by artists, the Artists' Games Night featured dice games, board games, video games, drawing games and word games, plus a special Fluxus-style table tennis challenge. → Download the programme notes read on →

Sophie Warren, Jonathan Mosley and Can Altay share a selection of the texts that have inspired and informed their ongoing project Rogue Game. Warren and Altay are artists and Mosley is an architect, and these books and articles represent their broad inquiry into game theory, urban planning, performance, literature and cinema. Visitors are invited to peruse these materials in the Resource Area in Gallery 2 during opening hours. Claire ... read on →

Rogue Game kicked off on Friday evening with a live football-volleyball-basketball match and these photos, taken by Max McClure, show the transformation of the gallery into a hybrid sports zone. In addition to the game, the exhibition features text pieces, video, photography and installation. Proposition No. 25 invites visitors to run a circuit in the gallery, stopping periodically to “play dead”, while Rogue Game Replay ... read on →

Berlin-based British artist Ivan Seal is known for his ambiguous and slightly odd still life paintings, but he has also worked with sound for many years, using computers to generate aleatoric compositions. In this new spoken word piece, recorded exclusively for Spike Island ahead of his exhibition In Here Stands It which opens on 20 October, Seal exercises the words in the show's title, enabling new meanings and associations ... read on →

Between April and June this year Spike Island was one of three arts organisations across the country that hosted a pair of creative technologists for 12 weeks as part of Happenstance, one of the ACE, NESTA and AHRC ‘Digital R&D for Arts and Culture Fund’ projects. During their time here Kevin ... read on →

As a charity, Spike Island relies on the support of people who offer a few hours each week to ensure that visitors to our exhibitions and events are welcomed and informed. Since we began the volunteer programme last year, over 70 individuals have joined us to support our front of house team. In return for a weekly shift, volunteers gain valuable experience working behind the scenes at a busy gallery, ... read on →

Spike Island and artists Jonathan Mosley, Sophie Warren and Can Altay are looking for video editors and camera operators to collaborate on their project, Rogue Game, which runs from 7 to 30 September. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in this live exhibition. Rogue Game brings together three different sports staged simultaneously in the same arena – a gallery converted into a multi-purpose sports hall ... read on →

As part of her contribution to Pull Everything Out, artist Ciara Phillips set up a working studio in the front gallery where she was based throughout July. Though Phillips has now returned to Glasgow, the workshop remains as it was during the residency, with inspiration and source materials pinned to the walls and ink and screens set out on the tables. → Read more about Phillips’ workshop and ... read on →

Ciara Phillips and Melissa Gordon joined Spike Island’s director Helen Legg and curator Marie-Anne McQuay on Tuesday 17 July 2012 to discuss their practices and processes. For both artists, printmaking and collaborative methods of production are central to the way the make art. As part of our exhibition Pull Everything Out, Phillips set up a screenprinting studio in the gallery where she worked with ... read on →