Art Space

As well as events, our front and back rooms are host to a series of visual, sound and performative art displays and workshops. Joe Evans is our in-house art facilitator and we regularly host residencies with artists who contribute to the blog on this page.

Our main space has 4 spaces for art displays:

2x mural walls – current design by Max Middlewood
3x columns – current design by Joe Evans
Main bar front - current design by Sadie Arellano
Top bar – current design by Joe Evans

Different artists will periodically be invited to redesign these.

Our backroom is also host to occasional exhibitions, as advertised on our social media pages.

Our main bar space a platform for sculpture – currently Penfold’s ‘Superking’ sits amongst the tables and can be seen through the window from the street.

If you have any proposals for works, please email arts@strangebrewbristol.com

Out The Window Collective, ‘Open Circuit’ February 2022

Copper Sounds ‘Play the Pots’ (residency), September 2021

Manu Maunganidze, Sarah James, Yas Clarke and Joe Evans - ‘The Piano’, October 2021

Leigh Dennis 07/04/2022 Leigh Dennis 07/04/2022

‘ALL MY FRIENDS ARE GRUBS’ APRIL 2022 MURAL WALL COMMISSION BY SNAILTEARS

‘All My Friends Are Grubs’ is the latest commissioned mural wall brought to us by artist, illustrator, jewellery maker and all round goblin-boy-king; SnailTears.

A collection of creepy-crawly, cutesy creatures seem to be gathering for a ceremony perhaps, or a teaparty or a brawl, whatever the occasion is, everyone is in their costumes or is that just their skin?

SnailTears’ work is sensitive yet sickly sweet, and tenderly shows love to the unlovable, the monstrous, the wormy and the weird, the ugly, the scary and the hairy. As an artist, SnailTears explores themes of gender, mental illness, vulnerability, growth and gentle melancholy.

Leigh Dennis 08/02/2022 Leigh Dennis 08/02/2022

ARTIST INTERVIEW: Amy gough & Joe WATSON PRICE

Every month at Strange Brew, we invite artists to take over our main room wall. Kicking off our program is Amy Gough and Joe Watson Price with their collaborative piece ‘LUXURY PORTAL’, bringing us a surreal, cheeky and playful backdrop for the venue where you can get lost in a landscape of weird and wonderful characters and creatures that exist somewhere between a medieval playground and a vision of a distant future fantasy.

Our in house artist Sadie has jumped headfirst into the portal to chat with Joe and Amy and see what makes them tick…

LUXURY PORTAL, 2022 - AMY GOUGH & JOE WATSON PRICE

SO FIRST OF ALL… WHO ARE YA?

AMY: I mainly work in moving image/3D animation, sound and drawing. My work usually involves weaving narratives/myths around disparate and mundane objects, locations and creatures. There is a focus on technology, absurdity and how we resolve gaps in knowledge/information. I also make zines and paintings at the moment.

JOE: I’m an Illustrator who lives and works here in Bristol. I like to make cartoons that have a surreal/ dreamlike quality and am inspired by TV, music and pop culture. I’ve spent the last few years making comics and producing editorial illustrations for The Bristol Cable.

What inspired you for this commission?

AMY: I guess it was inspired at least in part by the circumstances of last year, chaotic and mixed feelings around the pandemic and re-entering the world…all this inevitably trickled into the end product, but we wanted to have fun with it and this is what came out. Also Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.

JOE: We were definitely inspired by medieval art, and wanted to make something busy and chaotic like a Hieronymus Bosch painting. I wanted to incorporate a Sci-Fi feel and have characters zapping in and out of the scene through portals.

What's your process when collaborating with other artists?

AMY: It depends what I’m working on but for this project we did everything remotely. We talked rough ideas then sent drawings back and forth as we did them, taking it in turns rearranging and working on the composition.

JOE: I really like collaborating with like minded artists and find combining styles an exciting process. I think the best way is to not be too precious, to exchange lots of drawings/ ideas and to keep things experimental.

QUICK FIRE ROUND!

Describe your art as a smell

AMY: Crude oil/organic mulch/party poppers
JOE: Petrol and lucozade

Deep ocean or deep space?

AMY: Deep ocean atm, good geysers… and aliens…
JOE: Deep space

If you could collaborate with anyone/anything who/what would it be?

AMY: I have a pet axolotl who stars in my work a lot but I wouldn’t mind if it was more reciprocal.
JOE: Amy Gough!

If you weren’t an artist what else would you be doing?

AMY: Something in biology
JOE: There is a part of me that still believes I’ll play for England and be the next David Beckham.

Where do your ideas come from?

AMY: Walking around the neighbourhood, wherever that is at the time/otherwise the news/documentaries
JOE: My own experiences and people I see and meet in daily life. I like looking at vintage cartoons, reality TV and old paintings of crowd scenes.

Will robots ever replace artists?

AMY: Hopefully we can continue to collaborate before it gets nasty, but yes probably…
JOE: If they do, I’m imagining that the artists get to swap and do the robot jobs (the world would crumble).

Amy and Joe’s mural we be up until April and you can also purchase a copy of their zine ‘Luxury Portal’ which features scenes from the mural wall, along with other prints from Amy and Joe in store or from our online zine shop.