Art / Spike island
Spike Island hosts twin exhibitions from Phillip Lai and Olukemi Lijadu
Marking 50 years since their inception (formerly known as Bristol Artspace), 2026 is set to be a celebratory milestone for Spike Island.
Following their tradition of exhibiting two artists simultaneously within their generous gallery space, the venue will be welcoming visitors to view collections of work by Phillip Lai and Olukemi Lijadu this spring.
This approach enables the viewer to see the artists’ practices as if they are in dialogue with one another, appreciating unspoken connections or distinctions between the two.
Following a launch party on January 30, both exhibitions will be opening the next day, and running until May 10.
View this post on Instagram
RAIN/RUIN is a major solo exhibition of new work from internationally renowned sculptor Phillip Lai, whose artistic career spans 30 years.
A series of sculptures interrogate the human material world: they are described as a combination of “everyday objects with re-makings of them”, produced to create “a parallel imprint of the real world”. In so doing, the artist prompts the viewer to wonder “what, exactly, you are looking at”.
The artist uses a wide range of materials, from wax and stainless steel to concrete, resin and burnt wheat, which he uses in complex ways to create a deceptively simple “interplay of forms”.
His constructions are imbued with “notions of the proximal and the remote, the sacred and the profane” as well as a contrary sense “of surplus, excess and destruction”.
This will be the most significant collection of Lai’s sculptures shown to date.
Olukemi Lijadu, Feedback, works in progress (2025) – photo: courtesy of the artist
In her first solo institutional exhibition, Nigerian-British artist, filmmaker and DJ Olukemi Lijadu’s Feedback is built around a film commission.
Exploring the legacy and influence of West African music on the Chicago and UK electronic music scene, Lijadu builds her visual aesthetic around the idea of sonic patterns and rhythms.
“It draws on the concept of audio feedback”, the explanatory notes point out – “in which sound creates a loop between input and output, amplifying itself – as a metaphor for the circulation of memory and cultural codes within the African diaspora”.
The film is described as “a tender homage to Lijadu’s personal history and the shared passion for music that runs in her family”, and features archive material from her childhood in Lagos, amongst a patchwork of found footage that moves from the personal to the collective, and oscillates between continents.
Presented within the gallery space as an immersive experience, the film will unfold in tandem, fluctuating between the moving image and the soundscape created by Lijadu for the project.
In a special event on April 27, she will perform live, behind a screen – “blurring the lines between the virtual realm of the film and the physical space of the exhibition to offer an expanded cinema experience”.
View this post on Instagram
Phillip Lai: RAIN/RUIN and Olukemi Lijad: Feedback are at Spike Island from January 31-May 10, with an evening preview on January 30 at 6-11pm.
The gallery is open 12-5pm, Wednesday to Sunday. For more information, visit www.spikeisland.org.uk.
Main photo: Ben Westoby and Fine Art Documentation (Phillip Lai: Drunken Sailor detail, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Modern Art).
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
