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SPIKE ISLAND 2020 EXHIBITIONS AND COMMISSIONS

SPIKE ISLAND 2020 EXHIBITIONS AND COMMISSIONS

PACITA ABAD
Life in the Margins
18 January to 5 April 2020
The first exhibition in the UK by artist Pacita Abad (1946–2004). Curated in collaboration with artist Pio Abad, the exhibition includes over 20 large-scale ‘trapunto’ paintings and other works on fabric made between 1983 and 2002. Characterised by their vibrant colour and intricate construction, these works combine a broad range of styles, subjects and techniques, from social realist tableaus incorporating indigenous textiles to richly detailed abstractions inspired by Korean ink brush painting, Indonesian batik and Papua New Guinean macramé.

Film still featuring a man with white hair and round glasses and wearing a black tshirt, blowing into a flexible hose.
Eric Baudelaire, When There Is No More Music to Write (2020) Film still. Courtesy the artist

ERIC BAUDELAIRE AND ALVIN CURRAN
When There’s No More Music to Write
25 April to 21 June 2020
A two-person exhibition by artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire and composer Alvin Curran. Curated in collaboration with music historian Maxime Guitton, the exhibition includes a new film commission exploring how Curran’s life and work intersects with the radical political movements emerging in Italy, and around the world, during the 1970s. Presented in partnership with CRAC Occitanie and Bristol New Music, and supported by Fluxus Art Projects.

A painting on a grid of tiles, six across and four down. The image uses watery pinks, blues, browns, greens and greys to depict a dreamy and abstract scene of women and sea creatures
Lucy Stein, Her Comfort Zones 2 (2019) Glazed ceramic bisque tiles on marine plywood. Courtesy the artist and Gregor Staiger, Zurich

LUCY STEIN
Wet Room
25 April to 21 June 2020
The first major UK solo show and a new commission by artist Lucy Stein, comprising a new series of coffin-scale paintings, deities carved from soap, and a fully functioning, hand painted wet room. Building on a lasting engagement with goddess culture, witchcraft and idea of the ‘anima’, the exhibition is based on Stein’s research into the ancient, womb-like Neolithic passages unique to West Cornwall.

A very colourful, dynamic painting depicting people dancing, viewed from various angles and performing different shapes with their bodies. Surrounding the figures are abstracted shapes and lines in various colours, suggesting disco lights.
Denzil Forrester, Dub Dance (1993) Oil on board. Copyright Denzil Forrester. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

DENZIL FORRESTER
Itchin & Scratchin
4 July to 6 September 2020
A solo exhibition by painter Denzil Forrester, including new and existing paintings and works on paper that capture the vibrant energy of the dimly lit dancehalls of 1980s London and the present-day open-air clubs of Jamaica in vivid colour. Presented in partnership with Nottingham Contemporary.

Photograph of five round metal sculptures on the floor in a gallery space, a white wall behind them.
Amitai Romm, Parable (2017) Steel, neodymium magnets and flexicalymene trilobites. Photograph courtesy Julia Jaksch

AMITAI ROMM
4 July to 6 September 2020
A major new commission and the first UK solo exhibition by artist Amitai Romm. Often combining archaic, mundane and high-tech materials and references – from trilobite fossils to biotech membranes and household spices – Romm makes drawings, sculptures and installations as forms of science fiction.

Veronica Ryan, Arrangement in Layers, Stacking Up Moments III (2016-19). Recycled avocado trays, seeds, orange wool and cotton crochet. Installation views, Veronica Ryan: The Weather Inside, Paula Cooper Gallery (2019) Photograph by Steven Probert. Copyright Veronica Ryan, Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York and Alison Jacques, London

VERONICA RYAN
19 September to 13 December 2020
A major exhibition of new works by British artist Veronica Ryan (b. 1956, Montserrat). Supported by The Freelands Foundation, this is Ryan’s largest and most ambitious exhibition in the UK to date. Ryan’s work draws on her enquiries into ancestral history as well as experiences of place, home, memory and loss. In her sculptures and installations, Ryan brings together a wide range of techniques and materials that vary from cast forms in plaster, clay, bronze and aluminium, to more ephemeral found materials such as dried flowers, fruit, feathers and dust.

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND COMMISSIONS FOR 2021

CANDICE LIN
Pigs and Poison
23 January to 21 March 2021
A major new commission and solo exhibition by LA-based artist Candice Lin, comprising a virtual reality animation,  flesh-like sculptures and a large-scale medieval trebuchet. Commissioned by Spike Island, Bristol; Guangdong Times Museum; and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth.

ADAM KHALIL AND BAYLEY SWEITZER
Nosferasta
23 January to 21 March 2021
A new film commission by filmmakers Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer. Commissioned and produced by Gasworks, London and Spike Island, Bristol, as part of the European Cooperation project 4Cs: From Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture, co-funded by Creative Europe and the Royal College of Art.

PEGGY AHWESH
3 April to 13 June 2021
The first retrospective exhibition by artist and filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh, curated in collaboration with London-based scholar and critic Erika Balsom.