FEATURED
MAKER PROGRAMME 2020
We
have had another stimulating few months putting together our programme of
featured makers for 2020, including the Maker's Lunches which, hopefully, will
be held each month throughout the year.
11
January to 5 February
13th
Annual Graduate Show
This
will be another great start to the Gallery calendar. A separate Journal entry
sets out the detail and the participants who will provide us with a diverse
range of new work.
8
February to 4 March
Debbie Barber and Sharon
Griffin
Debbie
Barber has shown her fine raku black and white pieces at Bevere before. She
has been developing her work over the last year and we look forward to seeing
the direction she is taking, however, we know that Debbie's recognisable voice
will be sustained.
Sharon
Griffin is one of a number of new makers joining us in 2020. She is a skilled
sculptural ceramicist primarily of the human form. She particularly seeks an
underlying narrative so that one or more aspects of our lives will be evident
in this remarkable work. We are also very leased that she will be joining us
for a Maker's Lunch when we can explore her inspiration and making processes
with her.
Maker's
Lunch: 8 February – Sharon Griffin
7
March to 1 April
Ruth
Gibson and Christopher Taylor
Ruth
Gibson is another new face at the Gallery. She is an experienced and skilled
maker in porcelain, combining a love of
photography, printmaking and ceramics, to evoke a sense of place; in particular
the Shropshire landscape and the Welsh coast and mountains. She
certainly does just that and her imagery and the overall quality of her work is
striking. Her Maker's Lunch
will certainly be one not to miss.
Christopher
Taylor is an old friend of Bevere Gallery and we delighted to be showing his
distinctive work here again. He too has been working on developing hid
decorative style and we anticipate seeing some exciting new pieces. The
combination of traditional and contemporary decorative technique has always
been a feature of his work and it will be interesting to see whether this
remains a key element of his decoration.
'
Maker's
Lunch: 7 or 14 March – Ruth Gibson
4
April to 28 April
Chris
Carter, Annabel Faraday and Robin Welch
Chris
Carter is amongst those we call Master Potters and we are proud to
have shown his work here over a number of years. Whilst his work changes
direction as he works on new ideas, the quality of his making and the elegance
of his design remain a constant, as does his reference to past cultures and his
interpretation through a contemporary perspective.
Annabel
Faraday has not featured here for some time, although she has shown here at
Bevere on a number of occasions, including commissioned pieces depicting
Worcester from unusual perspectives. Her main body of
work involves a process of printing onto both sides of raw clay slabs that have
been coloured with stained slips. The vessels are illustrated with her own
(sometimes digitally altered) photographs and often with maps indicating the
source of the photos. Her work always fascinates.
Robin Welch has not been well however,
as with so many long established makers, his creative drive remains. We are
delighted and privileged to have his abstract decorated vessels with us again;
we know that this has taken no small effort on his part which makes this
feature even more special. We are sure that there will be many ceramic
enthusiasts who will look forward to seeing his work with anticipation.
Maker's Lunch: 4 April
- Chris Carter
2 May to 30 June
Wendy Lawrence, Guy Routledge and Sutton Taylor
Wendy Lawrence was shown at
Bevere for the first time in 2019. As we write, her fine pieces can be seen in
the Gallery courtyard. Her sculptural work and innovative decorative techniques
provide attractive features for inside the house and the
garden. The inspiration for her work comes from natural form and texture
together with architecture and antiquity.
Guy
Routledge has shown his sculptural ceramics twice in recent
years and it is good to have him with us again. Guy's sculptures are distinctly his voice with a strong
contemporary feel. There are modernist influences, which impact on the shaping
of his pieces reinforced by the simple highlighting of features and plain
presentation. Always guaranteed to make you stop, look and smile.
Sutton
Taylor is another eminent long established maker whose work has been at
Bevere before and always much admired. His
reputation grew as his making developed.
His skill as a potter is widely acknowledge both in the throwing and
decoration of his vessels. He has pieces in many permanent collections,
including the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Maker's Lunches: 2 May - Wendy Lawrence
6 June - Guy
Routledge
4 July to 28 July
Akiko Hirai, Ostinelli and Priest
Akiko Hirai is one of makers whose
appearance at Bevere always makes an impact. She bases
her designs on the Japanese aesthetics of relativity, the beauty of
imperfection, irregularity, spontaneity, and impurity. Every piece begs to be
held in the hand and for the sheer beauty of the design and decoration to be
absorbed, Great to have her here again
Ostinelli and Priest have
always thought of their work as a cross-over. On the one hand is sculpture,
with pieces created in clay and fired, and on the other is painting where the
colour is applied. Bringing both of these elements together builds the
character and individuality of each piece. The working partnership flourishes and develops simply due to
the balance of understanding between the two artists. This in turn enables them
to continue to create work that pleases and inspires. We look forward to seeing
the latest extraordinary sculptures and talking with them about their
inspiration when they join us for the Maker's Lunch.
Maker's Lunch: 4 July – Ostinelli and Priest
1 August to 1 September
John Wheeldon, James Oughtibridge
John Wheeldon has not shown his
work at Bevere for some time. He is a long established maker with a reputation
for high quality and an apparently indefatigable creative curiosity. His
decoration is skilfully and imaginatively applied and changes as his
exploration of making possibilities is taken forward. He was pleased to accept
our invitation to join us for a Maker's Lunch and we know that it will be a
revelatory couple of hours when we learn more about his creative drive.
James Oughtibridge has also not been
at Bevere for a number of years. Every time we see his work the elegance of his
sculptural pieces and their presence whether they be large or small is very
striking. An individual voice that has matured into work of artistic
significance now produces pieces which make an immediate impact on the viewer.
He constructs curved sections of clay with numerous planes and perspectives,
inviting the viewer to peer inside to a world of contorted shadows. A world
that is always worth exploring!
Maker's Lunch: 1 August – John Wheeldon
5 September to 29 September
Grainne Watts, Mark Smith
Grainne Watts is new to Bevere,
She has an established reputation in Ireland where she lives and works. Her
work is stunning and original and few would fail to be bowled over by the
beauty and elegance of every one of her fine pieces. In recent years, her work
has developed into specific themes that explore and expand through limited
edition series. There are unifying sources of inspiration that run through each
body of work. Many of these influences relate to colour, pattern and the visual
and tactile marks evident in nature. She works with
porcelain and stoneware clays and uses layers of vibrant under-glazes and slips
to create interesting surface detail.
Mark Smith is a Bevere
favourite who has shown often at Bevere and his work has always sold very well.
It is his use of mixed media and distinctive making often with a quirky twist
that appeals. Each piece of Mark's work draws inspiration from the sea, and
each has it's own unique appearance and story to tell. Objects found on travels
or by shoreline often become part of the work. Mark uses a variety of
techniques to achieve the finished look of a piece, focusing mainly on decay
and repair. The work is constantly changing due to the materials found, each
piece can never be replicated.
Maker's Lunch: 5 September – Mark Smith
3 October to 27 October
Matthew Blakely, Tony and Jack Laverick
Matthew Blakely is an
exceptional maker with an unusual approach to his craft. In
recent times he has been making pots from materials gathered from different
areas of the country. As he sees it, of all the arts, ceramics is the most
fundamentally linked to the physical make up of the planet and best illustrates
the link between science and art. Pots represent our relationship with and
dependency on the planet, making things for human use from the dug earth
beneath our feet. It is fascinating to see how the use of different materials
produces such varied effects. Great to be able to see his work at Bevere again.
Tony Laverick has
exhibited at Bevere before and it is always a privilege to show his exquisite vessels which
have changed and developed over the years, but retain the distinct Laverick voice.
His work
draws on various sources and cultures, and he is
always evolving his own original vision, which is a juxtaposition of controlled, linear
designs with areas of loose, painterly decoration. He uses the surface of the
pot as a painter uses a canvas.
His
son Jack Laverick studied at Leek College of Art. He has been working
for some time in porcelain and his portfolio now consists of slip cast
porcelain lighting with smaller items such as tea lights and planters. He uses
the translucency of porcelain for
his lighting which has, in the main, industrial themes. It is great to have
Tony and jack exhibiting here together.
Maker's Lunch: 3 October
– Matthew Blakely
31 October to 5 January (2021)
Yo Thom; Richard Heeley: Lara Scobie
Yo Thom has been a friend of Bevere Gallery for a number
of years and the last time she was here, she joined us for a memorable Maker's
Lunch when she gave a very open and frank account of her making career and her
creative drive. Yo makes thrown and hand-built functional stoneware with
influence from the traditions of both British and Japanese pottery and food
culture. She aims to create tableware, which will become “clothes for food” as
Rosanjin, a famous Japanese potter and restaurateur once said. Yo’s pots perform their function as
tableware in harmony with the food whilst retaining their strong personality.
Richard Heeley is another friend of Bevere who has shown
here for a number of years. He practices free flowing brushwork and spends long hours repeating his
designs to gain a fluid feel and simplicity that matches the thrown clay and
fits as part of the pot, working in harmony with the form. His work is
Influenced by a deep appreciation of Korean 16th century ware from the Chosôn
dynasty. We are pleased that he is joining us for what will be a
fascinating Maker's Lunch.
Lara Scobie is a highly skilled ceramic designer and
decorator whose work will be familiar to regular Bevere visitors. It will be
twelve months since she last featured here and we know that many will delight
in the use of colour and the precision of her decoration. The theme of balance
is a constant, significantly underlining her current work in which ideas of
dynamic interplay between form and surface develop. By integrating drawing, surface
mark making and volume she plays with the balance of space and pattern
alongside hue and texture on both the decorated and void surface areas. Her
work is a delight to eye and hand.
Maker's Lunch: 31 October
21
November - Richard Heeley
