JOHN BEDDING
‘GEISHA AND SAMURAI’
Jill George Gallery is delighted to include a specially commissioned major installation, ‘Geisha and Samurai’ at Art London 2023 by the renowned sculptor/potter, John Bedding. .
His career developed as an apprentice with Bernard Leach and later as a member of staff. In 1979 John was invited to work at the Ichino Pottery in Tamba, Japan for a year. This was followed in the 2000 and 2017 by two further residencies at Shigeraki and Mashiko, both famous centres of pottery.
In 1990 he established St Ives Ceramics and in 1999 opened the Gaolyard Studios where he established his studio and workshop. He became a founding trustee of the Leach Restoration Project in 2004 and was appointed ‘Honorary Lead Potter’ at Leach in 2012.
These new works are inspired by the two great iconic classes of Japanese culture and are influenced by the traditional images and designs of the fabrics and garments they wore. The working processes involves the patterns and designs being projected by computer or stencil onto a light sensitive emulsion applied to the unfired clay, a unique technique which Bedding has developed over many years.
The bodies of the two larger pieces are ‘slab built’, neither ‘thrown’ nor ‘coiled’ and then encircled to create cylinders, supported by tops and bases before the shoulders, arms and heads are applied. These all require multiple firings, sometimes as many
as four before the final finishing. They will stand like sentinels and ladies overseeing visitors to the Art Fair.
John Bedding has exhibited in London, New York, Japan and throughout
Europe and is represented in many public and private collections.
He was born in London 1947 and has lived and worked in St Ives, Cornwall since the late 1960’s. With the arrival of the Tate Gallery in St. Ives John was chosen as the second guest potter to exhibit in their yearly exhibition.