Jeremy Gardiner works on paper: Lyme Regis to Old Harry Rocks

About

Sladers Yard is delighted to announce an exhibition by Jeremy Gardiner. A highly acclaimed painter who has long been inspired by the Dorset coast, Jeremy joins the gallery with a magnificent collection of his experimental multi-layered paintings, including a series of works on paper plus a selection of paintings on panel.  This is his first exhibition at Sladers Yard. He shows alongside Akiko Hirai, one of the leading ceramic artists in this country. Her highly individual instantly recognisable work is collected nationally and internationally and seems to answer a need in this age of mass-production and consumerism. Likewise Petter Southall’s distinctive curvaceous solid-wood furniture with its clean lines and satisfying designs sets a benchmark for contemporary studio furniture.

All three artists are concerned with time and the history of art in their work. In a nod to Hiroshige, Jeremy Gardiner has painted the 20 Stations of the Dorset Coast in his distinctive style which takes forward the ideas of pioneering landscape artists such as John Tunnard, Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon and Richard Diebenkorn. Each of Jeremy Gardiner’s paintings combines many visits in different weather and light and many different ideas and reflections to create a composite, three-dimensional impression of the experience of being in that place. To the contemporary view Gardiner brings an awareness of the geology, the billions of tiny creatures whose bodies made up the chalk on this Jurassic coastline, along with the effects of weather and time on that geology. 

Akiko Hirai’s sublime ceramics seem to emerge both ancient and of this moment.  Inspired by ancient Korean ceramics and moon jars from the British Museum, by the Industrial Revolution, the paintings of Morandi and by the ponds, seed heads and surfaces of the natural world, her textured thoughtful works have a true beauty and resonance.

The curved components of solid timber in Petter Southall’s furniture are steam-bent using the ancient techniques of wooden boatbuilding. His designs use those components for structural strength as well as visual impact which leads to Gothic arches and Art Deco streamlines in truthful faultless joinery and human proportions. With tactile textures, natural finishes and inspired detailing, this is furniture to take us securely forward into the future.

Each of these three artists has shown and sold their work internationally and in this country over a number of years.  In London, Jeremy Gardiner shows regularly with The Nine British Art in St James. Akiko Hirai has recently shown at Ceramic Art London and Petter Southall’s sand-dune inspired steam-bent pavilion is in the Chelsea Flower Show 2019.