After our New Year opener – the Annual Graduate Show – it is a great pleasure to have another stimulating show to follow up. Having the work of Akiko Hirai is always special and we are delighted that she agreed to feature again this month. Akiko has confirmed her popularity in the ceramic sector as one of the best-selling ceramicists in the UK. Importantly, this is confirmation of the distinctiveness and quality of her work.
What is it that we see when we have her work in hand? Without doubt it is the very contemporary look which she brings to work which is clearly influenced by her Japanese heritage. Her creative voice is hers alone and she brings a very different perspective to her pot making.
Her pieces have great presence, even when she is producing modest scale pieces like small tea bowls. Her pieces are always highly textural so that handling her work is a visual and tactile experience. It is an education to have her work on display, not only for of these reasons, but because her monochrome work demonstrates clearly that design and texture can give as much pleasure as the highly decorative.
Her complex surfaces are worthy of study. There is nothing random or casual here. Rather like Jackson Pollock there is precision and balance in what appears to be somewhat loose abstract construct. Her work is special, and we are consistently being asked if we have her pieces available. Well, here it is this month – enjoy!
Ania Perkowska – a new maker at Bevere whose work makes an immediate impact. Ania is London based and has been making for some time. She creates functional pieces inspired by contrasts and opposites. Working mainly in stoneware her techniques include organic textures, sgrafitto and slip trailing. Our reaction to seeing her work for the first time was to immediately establish her name in our maker programme. It is always a challenge to establish your creative voice in a craft sector that has growing numbers – without doubt she has done this.
We will also be showing the work of another new maker at Bevere – Dawn Hajitoffi. She discovered a love for clay in her teens and always wanted to be a maker. Life took Dawn along a different path, but she continued to be drawn back to working with clay. Eventually she studied at Havering college and UCA Farnham and was finally able to pursue her passion and become a full-time maker in 2019. She is a skilled decorator. We are impressed with her use of colour and the stroke of her brush. Like the best of the abstract expressionists, she produces pieces whose three-dimensional decoration is so well balanced. We believe she will make an impact on others seeing her work for the first time.
Our current featured printmaker is Louise Davies
Louise’s prints depict landscapes with a vibrant use of colour, overlapping shifting shapes and a fluid line. She works from her own studio in South East London creating original editions that feature in galleries across the UK. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.
