STATE OF THE ART

Found, Arnolfini, until 26 February

Inspired by Arnolfini’s recent show Bharti Kher: The Body is a Place, UWE Bristol students from across Fashion Communication, Fashion Textiles, Filmmaking, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, and Interior Design have collaborated in mixed-discipline groups to create new work, showcased in this exhibition on Arnolfini’s second floor gallery. Taking direct influence from Kher’s process and work, students have explored the themes of readymade, recycled, sustainability, culture, identity, appropriation, meaning, and more. The work on display was created for the module Collaborate which is offered to undergraduate students across UWE Bristol’s School of Arts.

• arnolfini.org.uk; 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA

Accumulate by Kleiner Shames, That Art Gallery, 10 – 25 February

Kleiner Shames makes geometric abstract paintings and structures distinguished by bold forms and solid areas of strong colour. Originally from Oxford, he cut his teeth on street art before taking strides forward in his personal style and artistic confidence in London and then in Bristol, where his work moved on to commissioned murals and retail shopfronts. This exhibition represents Shames’s return to the city from his current base in Cornwall where his career shifted up another gear to include regular exhibitions in the county’s commercial art galleries.

• thatartgallery.com; Upper Maudlin Street, Bristol, BS2 8DJ

Image: Weightless byKleinerShames

Between Work and Window: Photographs of RWA Academicians by Anne-Katrin Purkiss, RWA, until 12 March

This exhibition of photographs of Royal West of England Academicians forms part of a larger collection of portraits, documenting British artists in the context of their working environment. It is an ongoing project that began more than thirty years ago with photographs of artists commissioned for press and news agencies and that is now pursued largely out of personal interest and based on commissions from the art galleries and publishers.

These images have come to reflect social changes as well as new practices and a new approach to using studio space. The selection of 35 photographs for this exhibition illustrates these developments. A third of the portraits were taken specifically for this occasion during the past year, including photographs of long-standing Academicians and of another generation of artists from different cultural and social backgrounds, working with new media and in less conventional spaces. The space between work and window describes the place of an artist in the studio and the photographer’s place for recording a moment during a studio visit. It refers also to a metaphorical space between the outside world and the artists’ way of seeing and interpreting it.

• rwa.org.uk; Queens Road, Clifton, BS8 1PX

Image: Anne-Katrin Purkiss, Portrait, Sir Frank Bowling, 2014, photograph, Giclee print, b/w © 2022 A. K. Purkiss

Ayo Akingbade: Show Me The World Mister, Spike Island, 18 February –21 May Show Me

The World Mister is an exhibition by Ayo Akingbade comprising two new film commissions shot on location in Nigeria. The Fist is a portrait of the Guinness brewery in Lagos, where histories of colonialism, industrialisation and labour collide; while Faluyi follows protagonist Ife on a journey tracing familial legacy and mysticism in ancestral lands. Building on Akingbade’s interests in history, placemaking, legacy and power, these are her most ambitious productions to date.

Produced by Chisenhale Gallery and Spike Island, Bristol, and commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery; Spike Island; the Whitworth, The University of Manchester; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. The exhibition is part of the West of England Visual Arts Alliance programme, supported by Arts Council England.

• spikeisland.org.uk; 133 Cumberland Road, BS1 6UX

Image: Ayo Akingbade, The Fist (2022). Film Still. Courtesy the artist.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year, M Shed, until 29 May

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is back at M Shed with a brand new set of images capturing the breathtaking diversity of the natural world. From fascinating animal behaviour to remarkable species, 100 powerful photographs illustrate the precious beauty of our planet. The images shine a light on stories from all over the world and convey the impact of human activity in ways that words cannot.

Now in its 58th year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year is the most prestigious photography event of its kind, providing a global platform that showcases some of the best photography talent from around the world. Launching in 1965, today the competition receives entries from over 90 countries all over the world. Winning images are selected for their creativity, originality and technical excellence by a panel of international experts.

• bristolmuseums.org.uk; Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, BS1 4RN

Image: Heavenly flamingos by Junji Takasago, Japan | Winner, natural artistry Junji Takasago/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Sweet Patootee Arts: Turning Point, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, until 5 March

From the neglected heritage of early 1920s British Caribbean, Tony T from Sweet Patootee Arts has crafted Turning Point, a series of four short films inspired by oral histories about the Black Caribbean experience after the First World War.

High-profile actors and rising stars perform Caribbean melodrama and comedy to camera with a backdrop of projected archive footage and a 3D soundscape of community participant voices. Featuring performances from Paterson Joseph (The Beach, Vigil, Noughts + Crosses), Suzette Llewellyn (Holby City, Eastenders, Surgical Spirit), Ashley D. Gayle and Veronica Beatrice Lewis. The use of folk culture and comedy reawakens a hidden age of revival and New Negro* rebellion. Real experiences of Black women and First World War veterans have inspired four dramatic vignettes, interwoven with archive imagery, text, and rare folk songs. The result is a call to arms: triumphant Black British heritage waits to be celebrated.

*The use of New Negro relates to a post-First World War shift in the British Caribbean. Game-changing new Black pride and self-esteem of ordinary Black people trapped at the bottom of the social ladder.

• bristolmuseums.org.uk; Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL

Image courtesy of Bristol Museum & Art Gallery