Exhibition

Cate Fox

19 Apr-28 Jun

Cate Fox studied Fashion Textile Design at UWE and then worked freelance as a textile designer, selling work in Japan and New York to luminaries such as Oscar de la Renta and Clavin Klein. Following a break from her formal design career, Fox has commenced working on smaller, more intimate personal pieces – exploring themes of texture and pattern, using embroidery techniques combined with a variety of recycled materials & found objects. Her work often starts with a random collection of bits and pieces; scraps of fabric, beads or broken jewellery. Fox also confesses to a fondness for rusted metal and bits of shattered mirror – the combination of reflective and non-reflective surfaces are a continuing theme in her work.

Jitka Palmer

19 Apr-28 Jun

Jitka Palmer grew up in Czechoslovakia. She studied medicine in Brno and almost became a lecturer in anatomy in her homeland but her passion and commitment to drawing and her love for ceramics was sufficiently strong that she concentrated her efforts towards her artistic pursuits. Palmer’s sketchbooks demonstrate her fascination with the poetry of our everyday lives – the refuse collectors whistling as they throw the black bags into the lorry, the family sing-a-long in the car on the way home from the beach … These vignettes from her sketchbook sometimes find their way onto the wall by way of pastels, watercolour and inks but often find themselves wrapped around a coiled pot of vast, sumptuous proportions. Palmer uses the hand-built ceramic vessel as a canvas – although the scale of her pottery is impressive in itself, the decoration, the tender story and acute observation is what makes this work truly remarkable. For this show, Jitka exhibits her large-scale ceramic work (decorated pots and sculpture) and drawings but also gives us a glimpse of her new obsession (and focus for experiment) – porcelain. She is starting to make functional ceramics – jugs, bowls and cups – all of which carry for the haphazard voluptuousness of her large-scale work but with a new, more abstract decoration.

Prema's galleries

Prema's galleries are open Mon to Fri 10am-6pm and weekends by appointment. Please ring before visiting on 01453 860703.

Admission is free and the building is fully wheelchair accessible.