ARTS & EXHIBITIONS

STATE OF THE ART

Cara Romero Photography, Rainmaker Gallery, 7 July –30 September This month, Rainmaker Gallery opens its new expanded exhibition space on Whiteladies Road with two concurrent shows of contemporary Native American art. Minimalistic oil pastel drawings by Potawatomi artist

Jason Wesaw are juxtaposed with narrative photographic portraits by Chemehuevi artist Cara Romero.

In the drawings of Jason Wesaw we find carefully chosen single colours that describe simple shapes with deeply personal references to nature, healing and ceremony. Romero, whose photography is currently on show at both MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art, NY) and The Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY ), says of her work: “My photographs explore our collective Native histories, and the ways in which our indigeneity expresses itself in modern times.”

• rainmakerart.co.uk; 140 Whiteladies Road, BS8 2RS

Image: Shameless by Cara Romero

Black Sky City, F4 Photography gallery, throughout July In Black Sky City, Esmé Lloyd FRPS presents a cinematic storyboard, illustrating her song of the same name. A transient musician is tracked on his night odyssey across 1960s America. Shot entirely from Esmé’s Dorset studio, the collection of photographic images display an extraordinary reality, perfectly capturing the mood and feel of night time America. Limited edition 50, a selection from the 20 images that make up Black Sky City will be on display and available to purchase. Entry is free. The gallery is open every day except Tuesdays.

Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781 2022, Royal West of England Academy (RWA), 9 July - 11 September The final instalment of the RWA’s elements series, Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022 tackles the most expansive and urgent of subject matters, bringing together important modern, historical and contemporary artworks, co-curated by artist Emma Stibbon RA RWA, art historian Professor Emerita Christiana Payne (Oxford Brookes University) and Nathalie Levi (Head of Programme – Curator of Exhibitions, RWA). The exhibition examines how attitudes towards the landscape have evolved over the centuries and how artists’ approaches have changed over time; from the pastoral idylls of the 18th century, through representations of the Romantic Sublime, to present-day confrontations of the climate emergency. Encompassing depictions of the natural world from geological, spiritual, industrial, cultural and scientific perspectives.

• rwa.org.uk

Image: Rodney Harris MRSS (b. 1966), A Delineation of Strata of England and Wales with parts of Scotland, Ireland and France, based on the original geological map by William Smith in 1815

Forest: Wake this Ground, Arnolfini, 9 July –2 October

This summer, Arnolfini welcomes visitors to celebrate what lies above and below the forest floor with Forest: Wake this Ground, a major group exhibition including artists, writers, filmmakers, and composers from across the globe: Rodrigo Arteaga, Mark Garry, Alma Heikkilä, Eva Jospin, Jumana Manna, Zakiya Mckenzie, David Nash, Maria Nepomuceno, John Newling, Rose Nguyen, Ben Rivers, Ai Weiwei, and Hildegard Westerkamp. With works that recycle, reuse and repurpose resources, discover the forests’ ancient rhythms and explore stories, myths, and folktales passed down between people over centuries. The exhibition is accompanied by a programme that includes live performance, film, family events and creative workshops inviting you to share and create your own ‘forest tales’ and to very gently encourage us all to take a look at the impact the changing climate has on nature and the world around us.

• arnolfini.org.uk

Image: Soil unsoiled, 2020. A collaboration between Zakiya McKenzie and Khady Gueye

Imagined Landscapes, Paintworks, 23 - 26 July

A free festival of contemporary art and music from Expressions and Milestones Trust. Themed around the ‘Imagined Landscape’, this exhibition explores the ways that landscape is understood and imagined, both individually and on a collective level. Through the work, audiences are invited to consider the landscapes they experience, to explore our shared and individual imaginings and to respond to these as witnesses and collaborators. Themes that have been explored in the making of the exhibition include human connection, influence of the landscape, active and passive understanding of nature and the landscape, as well as geology and the climate emergency.

• expressions-arts.co.uk

Exploring: New Collections by Nancy Pickard and Ellie Preston, Clifton Contemporary Art, 2 July – 20 August

For summer, the gallery is focusing on two artists who pursue their own unique exploratory paths. Not from A to B, but into the personal, the archetypal, the instinctive and emotional. Nancy Pickard’s inscrutable mixed media paintings are rich with ideas and symbolism. Blurring the borders between animal and human, they are also inspired by the concept of migration that has defined and driven our culture for millennia. In Ellie Preston’s layered, contemplative abstracts, the creative process is a material exploration that begins with a formative underpainting onto which she builds depth and harmony. Each gesture, form and colour contributes to the whole, where the balance of thoughtfulness and spontaneity creates presence and power. Complementing Nancy and Ellie’s work will be a selection of pieces by gallery artists including: Masako Tobita, Tom Hughes, Elaine Jones, Andrew Hood, Carl Melegari, Sally Stafford and Lynne Cartlidge.

• cliftoncontemporaryart.co.uk

Image: All at Sea by Nancy Pickard

Expert opinion

Our regular columnist Chris Yeo is away but Clevedon Salerooms report on yet another successful specialist sale.

Bristol Valuation Days, a flyaway success

Clevedon Salerooms held their Summer Specialist Fine Art Sale on Thursday 9th June. Having generated a great deal of interest in the lead up to the auction, lively bidding was in evidence throughout the day, with consistently strong prices and a sale total well over expectations from over 540 lots on offer.

With Clevedon Salerooms now holding monthly valuation days in Bristol, it was gratifying to see a number of items with a solid Bristolian provenance amongst the day’s top performing lots. An Italian glass ‘Pulcino’ bird in an eye-popping shade of bright orange had been bought as a birthday present from the Bristol Guild on Park Street in 1963 for the sizable sum (for the time) of £12. Looking rather like an Outspan orange on two spindly legs, it had subsequently been named “Fred” by its owner. Now a much-coveted example of mid-century modernist design, Fred flew away to his new home having sold for £2,500.

Also found on a Bristol valuation, a small album containing a collection of 1950s and ‘60s autographs, the standout of which was a 1963 John Lennon autograph which came with a photograph of the Beatle taken at the time with the young autograph hunter. The focus of an intense battle between two online bidders from the United States, it sold for £2,600.

We also found out that it’s not just fairies that we need to look out for in the bottom of the garden. A back garden in Belgium had been the unlikely resting place of a pair of carved limewood recumbent lions, which had then travelled to an address in Stoke Bishop. Their owners, believing them to be of little value, had contemplated painting them gold. Fortunately, they decided against this rather drastic course of action as Clevedon’s valuer on a home visit recognised their lions as rare survivals from the 16th century which, despite their weathered condition, went on to sell for £2,200 – one of the day’s many roaring successes.

Clevedon Salerooms next Quarterly Specialist Sale, for which entries are now invited, will be on Thursday September 1st. Free valuation days are held at the Saleroom every Monday (except Bank Holidays). Free Bristol valuation days are held every month, please visit the website for more information www.clevedonsalerooms.com. ■ • clevedonsalerooms.com; @chrisyeo_antiques (Instagram)