ARTS & EXHIBITIONS

STATE OF THE ART

Summer Blues, Rainmaker Gallery, until 28 August

Rainmaker Gallery is celebrating 30 years of exhibiting contemporary Native American art in the UK. Throughout the year, the gallery is showcasing artworks selected in accordance with seasonal colour palettes, including as many artists from the three decades as possible. The current exhibition emphasises ‘summer blues’, bringing together paintings, drawings, original prints and fine art photography by more than a dozen artists from diverse tribal nations.

• rainmakerart.co.uk

Image: Sheridan by Cara Romero

In Contrast: Boo Mallinson and Robert Hewer, Lime Tree Gallery, until 10 July

Lime Tree Gallery is showcasing a powerful and thoughtful exhibition by two artists who are different yet complementary in style. Boo Mallinson’s calming and serene abstract landscapes contrast with Robert Hewer’s bold and striking portraits. This exhibition introduces Robert’s still life paintings to Bristol for the first time.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors will also notice a connection to Dorset as Robert grew up there and Boo chooses to paint her beautiful landscapes in the county.

Meadow Maker, A New Collection by Sally Stafford, Clifton Contemporary Art, 3 –30 July

It is estimated that 97% of Britain’s wildflower meadows have vanished since the 1930s, and the few that remain are often vulnerable, together with the numerous creatures that depend on them, such as vital pollinators, butterflies, birds and small mammals. The tireless work of conservation charities such as Plantlife has never been more important.

Beginning on National Meadows Day, 3 July, Clifton Contemporary Art’s latest exhibition is a celebration of these beautiful habitats, expressed through the encompassing mixed media paintings of Sally Stafford, who has long drawn inspiration from the intricate balance of living colours and changing textures that define unspoilt meadows.

Meadow Maker immerses the viewer in a rare and precious world that deserves to be cherished and protected by us all.

• cliftoncontemporaryart.co.uk

Image: Summer Haze by Sally Stafford

• limetreegallery.com

Image: Autumn Coast by Boo Mallinson

Canaletto: Painting Venice, The Holburne Museum, until 5 September

The Holburne Museum in Bath is presenting the most important set of paintings of Venice by Canaletto (1697 – 1768) which have left their home at Woburn Abbey – one of world’s most important private art collections – for the first time in more than 70 years.

This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition enables art lovers to enjoy and study upclose 23 beautiful paintings, in a fascinating exhibition that also explores Canaletto’s life and work, alongside themes of 18th-century Venice and the Grand Tour. This is one of the rare occasions that any of the successive Dukes of Bedford and trustees of the Bedford Estates have lent the set of paintings since they arrived in Britain from Canaletto in the 1730s.

Created over a nine-year period, when the artist was at the pinnacle of his career, the Woburn Abbey paintings are the largest set of paintings that Canaletto ever produced, and much the largest that has remained together.

• holburne.org

Image: View on the Grand Canal looking north from the Palazzo Contarini dagli Scrigni to the Palazzo Rezzonico

Varekai (‘Wherever’), RWA Pop-up Exhibition, community venues across Bristol, throughout July

The Royal West of England Academy is taking a selection of vibrant and colourful artworks from the permanent collection to community venues across Bristol, as a pop-up exhibition, during the time that the RWA building is closed for renovation. The title, ‘Varekai’, is a Romani word meaning ‘wherever’. It comes from one of the paintings in the exhibition, which depicts Le Cirque du Soleil performing a show of the same name.

The exhibition comprises eight paintings that all have great energy, vibrancy and a distinct sense of the outdoors about them. They were chosen to inspire and delight, as we all come out of lockdown and reconnect with each other and the places around us.

To accompany the exhibition, free family art workshops with an artist will run at each venue, using the paintings as inspiration. Booking for these workshops is via each individual venue.

• rwa.org.uk

Image: June Berry RWA NEAC Hon. RE RWS, Le Cirque du Soleil Performing ‘Varekai’, 2011. RWA Collection © RWA (Royal West of England Academy)

Sir Frank Bowling, Arnolfini, 3 July –26 September

Arnolfini is showcasing a major exhibition with pioneering painter Sir Frank Bowling as part of their 60th anniversary celebrations. The exhibition will feature new and recent works which demonstrate the continued exploration and experimentation with the painted surface for which Bowling is renowned. This is the artist’s first museum exhibition since his critically acclaimed and long overdue retrospective at Tate Britain in 2019, which cemented his reputation as a modern master. It will include new and previously unseen works –including several created during the pandemic –alongside key paintings from the last decade, providing a fascinating insight into Bowling’s work.