Victoria Coombes makes abstract paintings from a process that is improvised, intuitive and spontaneous. She uses oil paint and gesso on a variety of surfaces drawing on memory and experience to create apparitional moments.

Laura Phillips’ work investigates the complexity of resonance and incongruence between sound/image. Working with a mixture of photochemical processes, found sounds and digital imagery, her work is often made in collaboration with others.

Behind the Scenes Studio Visits

Chat with artists based at Spike Island, explore their studios and view works in progress during these informal encounters. Each artist gives a brief introduction to their practice followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion.

Victoria Coombes

Victoria Coombes was born in Oxford and studied painting in the Irish Republic gaining her Masters in Fine Art at the University of the West Of England. She now lives and works in Bristol and is a studio-based artist at Spike Island. Her work is concerned with process and the manipulation of materials and surfaces. It is neither figurative nor representational work it is more imagined interior landscapes that come about through structured decisions and happenstance. Paint is applied and removed in equal measure in search of an apparitional discovery or rediscovery of images/memories in the stains, shadows and traces of the materials.

Laura Phillips

Laura Phillips (b.1986, Bristol), her work has been purchased by the Arts Council Collection; recent awards include the South West Showcase Commission, Plymouth College of Art 2018. Future performances are as part of Supernormal Festival 2019.