Behind the Scenes: Building Tour and Studio Artist Visits

As part of Bristol Gallery Weekend, join us for a special behind the scenes tour of Spike Island where two artists will open their studio doors to the public. This is a chance to; explore the building’s unique architectural features and gain a glimpse into its previous life as a Brooke Bond tea-packing factory, and meet some of the artists based at Spike Island, learn about their practice and see works in progress.

On this visit, meet artists Harriet Bowman and Max Naylor. Bowman is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice takes the form of writing, sculpture, audio, performance and installation pieces. Naylor is a painter concerned with constructing an alternate universe, where each painting made is another glimpse into this other realm.

HARRIET BOWMAN
Harriet Bowman is a multidisciplinary artist born in North Devon and currently living and working in Bristol with a studio at Spike Island. Recent exhibitions include: Slow Puncture, Standpoint Gallery, London (2025); Taking Care of the Yolk, MIRROR Plymouth, Plymouth (2024); Maybe they had an urgent call, Exeter Phoenix, Exeter (2023); Maybe they had an urgent call, Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne (2022); All Round-er (sad sale), Spike Island, Bristol (2019); putting my foot down, OUTPOST gallery, Gildengate House, Norwich (2018).

Recent awards and residencies include: Incidental Artist with Eastside Project (2025-2027); Awarded the Wheatley Fellowship with Eastside Projects and Birmingham City University, Henry Moore Artist Award (2025); Winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (2024);

MAX NAYLOR
Max Naylor is a professional artist living in Bristol, UK, where he is a studio holder at Spike Island Studios. Alongside his own fine art practice, Naylor is a tutor at the Royal Drawing School in London.

Naylor’s practice is concerned with constructing an alternate universe. Familiar yet exotic, his paintings resemble the natural world seen through the filter of personal consciousness. Naylor thinks of these works as mindscapes, reoccurring motifs that well up from the subconscious and spill onto the paper or canvas.

The painting process is instinctive and ongoing, working from memory that’s being constantly added to through travel and experience, enlarging and illuminating his personal microcosm.

Naylor has completed a number of international residencies including time spent in Los Angeles and Delhi. In 2017 Naylor won the Discerning Eye Drawing Bursary and in 2016 the Jackson’s Painting Prize. He has exhibited widely in the UK and has work in private collections throughout the world.