Behind the Scenes: Building Tour and Studio Artist Visits

About

This is a chance to explore the building’s unique architectural features and meet some of the artists based at Spike Island, learn about their practice and view works in progress. On this visit, we meet artists Pia Pack and Phil Root. Pack is a painter, who uses repetition as a process to uncover and probe the mystery of patterns. Root is a visual artist whose ceramic works explore our relationship to dwelling, landscape and the earth. Tour schedule: 10:45: Meet at reception 11:00: Tour of Floor 1 11:15: Studio visit with Pia Pack 11:45: Tour of Ground Floor 12:00: Studio visit with Phil Root 12:30: End PIA PACK Pia Pack lives and works in Bristol. Pack studied painting at Wimbledon School of Art, Central St Martins and Bath School of Art, and has been included in group shows in London and the U.S. Whilst living in Los Angeles, Pack established the podcast What Artists Listen To, aimed at bringing artist’s studio practises to life and building a community amongst creatives in the city and further afield. This communal sentiment has been continued recently with an initiative entitled Binder of Women, organised by Pack to unite a group of ten women artists to create portfolios of print works and art shows as an art collective. At the beginning of 2025, Pack is in the exhibition Tenterhooks at Gillian Jason Gallery. PHIL ROOT Phil Root is a visual artist whose work examines how ceramic can be a tool to tell stories of place and engage audiences with the often complex and overlooked histories within the land. Root’s works and projects explore our relationship to dwelling, landscape and the earth, using natural materials and traditional techniques in unorthodox ways. From his studio at Spike Island and Lyde Green Pottery, a wood fired kiln site in North Bristol, Root fires his work and runs workshops for other artists and potters.