Spike Island

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Spike Island

Award-winning 80,000 ft² contemporary arts centre in Bristol, UK ▫️ Visit our gallery and café from Wed to Sun, 12–5pm ▫️

Gallery open Wednesday to Sunday, 12–5pm (during exhibitions). Café open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am–5pm and Sunday 10–4pm.

12/06/2026

📚 Coming up for Spike Island Associates:

Reading Group with East Bristol Books (): 'Chiquitita' by Pedro Carmona-Alvarez.

Marisol's country is collapsing. A military coup sends the five-year-old and her family fleeing into the night.

Marisol spends her adult life trying to forget her childhood, the aunts and uncles she left behind and the friends whose names she no longer recalls. But when her partner starts to ask about her past, she finds herself confronting the memories that haunt her.

‘Chiquitita’ is a tender novel about flight and exile, the passing of time and the experiences that remain with us, refusing erasure.

East Bristol Books co-founders Dan Eltringham and Andrés Anwandter will facilitate a conversation around the book and the topics addressed by Carmona-Alvarez.

This reading group is part of the Summer 2026 Spike Island Associates programme, The Texture of Dreams, drawing on the themes that underpin the exhibitions by Tohé Commaret and Nancy Lupo, currently on view in Spike Island’s galleries.

09/06/2026

🌱 We're proud to share that Spike Island has once again been recognised as a 2025 Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition ().

As a GCC Active Member, we're committed to making pragmatic, measurable changes that reduce our environmental impact and contribute to a more sustainable arts sector. Contemporary art has the power to confront urgent social issues such as climate change, but organisations and venues must also lead by example through positive action and innovative ways of working.

We're continuing to make progress in improving the sustainability of our building, including through a new partnership with Generation Soil (.soil). Food waste collected at Spike Island is kept local, composted with care, and returned to Bristol's soils as living compost for gardens, allotments and community spaces.

Together, these actions help us reduce waste, support local ecosystems and strengthen our commitment to environmental responsibility.

Find out more about our commitment to the environment via the link in our bio.

06/06/2026

BOOK TODAY: Writing Art Writing Art Writing, 'When Language Becomes Material' ✍️
Saturday 27 June 2026, 1.30–9.30pm

Join us for WAWAW, a day-long event exploring relationships between art and writing, presented by WITTA (Writing In / To / Through Art)

The event will explore and create space for different approaches to working with language as material. It will consider the myriad forms, influences, strategies and concerns percolating this dynamic field of practice

Schedule
Symposium: 1.30–5pm
Evening Salon: 5.30–9.30pm

A WITTA exhibition, 'Make Write Write Make', is presented alongside the symposium featuring artwork by Spike Island studio artists Jo Lathwood and Marianne Mulvey, Huma Mulji and Emmanuelle Waeckerlé, Amak Mahmoodian, Mary Hurrell and Young In Hong

The event and exhibition is timed to coincide with the major artist’s book fair BABE (Bristol Artist Book Event), and with Spike Island’s current exhibition 'Several Chickens Later' by Nancy Lupo.

Book your place today at the link in our bio 🔗

Image credit:
Anna Barham, 'Michael Dodds' (2026). Photography by Ian Stonehouse

05/06/2026

OPEN NOW
Nancy Lupo: 'Several Chickens Later' 🪟

What is left once projections turn into possession?

In her work, which encompasses sculpture, video, writing, sound, drawing, painting, performance and architecturally specific installation, Lupo reflects on how collective fantasies and emotions become embedded in form. She often describes her work as being scripted or held together through a thin thread of narrative which she explores in her first novel, 'Meow Meow Real Estate'.

A corpus of newly commissioned sculptures, playing with the scale and industrial grandeur of Spike Island’s galleries, evokes the fragility of our endeavours, and the futility of our fantasies.

'Several Chickens Later' is now yours to explore.
Visit our exhibitions for free every Wednesday to Sunday from 12–5pm 🏃

The exhibition includes a work co-produced by Spike Island and the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation ( ). With thanks to Raven Row (). The exhibition is generously supported by Antenna Space.

04/06/2026

OPENING TOMORROW: UWE Bristol's Showcase 2026 🎓

UWE Bristol presents this year’s work from graduating students across the College of Arts. At Spike Island, explore work from this year's Fine Art and Art and Writing graduating cohorts 🎉

Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June, 10am–6pm
Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 June, 10am–6pm

Showcase combines exhibitions at Bower Ashton, Arnolfini, Spike Island and Frenchay Campus, accompanied by an extensive digital Showcase.

Learn more at 💻

Lorelei von Leyden, 'The route to an ideal life' (2026). Image courtesy UWE Bristol and the artist

02/06/2026

Thank you for joining us for the launch of our summer exhibitions ☀️

Nancy Lupo: 'Several Chickens Later' and Tohé Commaret: 'Mijitas' are open now at Spike Island until Sunday 6 September 2026

Spike Island's galleries are open every Wednesday to Sunday, 12–5pm

Learn more about our programme of exhibitions and events at the link in our bio 🔗

Nancy Lupo: 'Several Chickens Later' includes a work co-produced by Spike Island and the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation (London). With thanks to Raven Row (London). The exhibition is generously supported by Antenna Space

Tohé Commaret: 'Mijitas' includes a co-commission by MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST (Frankfurt) in collaboration with Spike Island and produced by Parcelles Films (Paris). The exhibition is generously supported by Fluxus Art Projects

📸 Photography by Dulcie Wagstaff (2026)

29/05/2026

REMINDER: Join us tonight to celebrate the launch of our summer exhibitions, Tohé Commaret: 'Mijitas' and Nancy Lupo: 'Several Chickens Later' 🎉

🗓️ Tonight, 6–11pm

💿 Discover two major new exhibitions alongside vinyl DJ sets from Noods Radio resident Amaia and Whitts who, from 8pm onwards, will be spinning everything from funk, disco and groove to bass, dubstep and post-club

🍸 Cocktails, local wine and beers, and alcohol-free options available throughout the evening in our on-site café-bar Emmeline

🎟️ This event is free to attend, with booking strongly advised

Book your free place at the link in our bio 🔗

Photography by Lisa Whiting (2026). Image courtesy Spike Island

28/05/2026

‘Mijitas’ is the first exhibition in the UK by Franco-Chilean artist Tohé Commaret, opening with a launch party at Spike Island on Friday 29 May from 6–11pm. It features two new moving image commissions.

Across the exhibition, characters, places and gestures reappear in different guises. The same performers inhabit different social positions and narrative worlds, producing a series of doubles, echoes and alternative lives. Through repetition and return, ‘Mijitas’ approaches cinema as a space where identities remain unstable and stories continually re-emerge in altered forms.

Tohé Commaret, ‘Mijitas’ includes a co-commission by MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST (Frankfurt) in collaboration with Spike Island and produced by Parcelles Films (Paris). The exhibition is generously supported by Fluxus Art Projects.

Tohé Commaret, ‘Can you hear me?’ (2026). Film excerpt. Courtesy the artist

27/05/2026

Nancy Lupo: 'Several Chickens Later' opens at Spike Island with a launch party this Friday 29 May, 6–11pm

'Several Chickens Later' is a major new exhibition by Nancy Lupo opening on Friday 29 May, including a corpus of newly commissioned works.

The fiction piece 'Meow Meow Real Estate' is published on the occasion of the exhibition. It accompanies and feeds its course. In this book, Lupo recounts the story of a woman looking for an apartment. The search is both literal and existential.

Several Chickens Later includes a work co-produced by Spike Island and the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation (London). With thanks to Raven Row (London). The exhibition is generously supported by Antenna Space.

Background image: Nancy Lupo, 'Meow Meow Real Estate' at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation (2026). Photography by Keystone Photos. Courtesy Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation and the artist
Foreground images: Courtesy the artist

25/05/2026

We’re proud to support Art in Motion (AIM) 🤝

Based at Spike Island until 2025, AIM is a Bristol-based organisation working alongside learning-disabled and neurodivergent artists to create bold, ambitious work while building confidence, connection and creative independence. They’re currently fundraising at a critical moment, and we’re helping spread the word.

For small, community-led arts organisations, funding is becoming harder to secure. At the same time, the need for inclusive, accessible creative spaces like AIM has never been greater.

This funding will help bridge an urgent gap, keep the studio open and ensure artists and projects already in development can continue to grow.

Donate today to keep AIM open:
crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-keep-aims-studio-open 🔗

Photography by Dan Weill, images courtesy Spike Island

Address

133 Cumberland Road
Bristol
BS16UX

Opening Hours

12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+441179292266

Website

http://www.spikeisland.org.uk/

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