Julia Alexandra Beer MFA
Statement
Julia Alexandra Beer, MFA
Artist Statement
Inspired by the human body in all its forms, I am aesthetically seduced by the tactile, sensuous nature of its landscape, emotionally by the way in which it can reflect the human condition and intellectually by its artistic possibilities as a symbolic representation of what it means to be human.
In Genesis 2:7 Adam, the first man, was formed out of the ‘adamah’, being the Hebrew word for the ground, the earth, or clay. To use clay as the medium with which to create images of the human figure is, to me, not only instinctive, but also the most congruous way of representing the subtle nuances and delicate impressions that individualise the human figure.
“There are more things in heaven and earth…” Hamlet, 1.5.167-8
Recent work reflects my parallel interest in alchemy and sacred geometry, revealed through the mediums of ceramics and video in an attempt to make manifest the unseen world. I have used both slip- cast and hand-built ceramics as a metaphor to embody the building blocks of the universe, especially pertinent since clay derives directly from the earth. These forms have been either left in their pure white form alluding to earth in its rawness, in black suggesting the Prima Materia, raku fired to represent the alchemical process and gold for the Philosopher’s Stone.
Biography
Having studied Ceramics and then Fine Art after a career in film and television, I have been working in clay and bronze for some years, focusing mainly on the human form, both in the abstract and figuratively.
Qualifications:
MFA Fine Art, Oxford Brookes University
BA (Hons) Ceramics, (University of Westminster (Harrow)
Film & Television Studies, University of Middlesex
Recent Portrait/Public Commissions:
Sir Harold Gillies, plastic surgeon:
Peace Garden, Basingstoke (2018),
Maxillofascial Unit, Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup (2020),
Royal College of Surgeons, London (2020)
Contact: studio@juliabeer.co.uk
https://juliabeer.co.uk
https://juliabeer.carbonmade.com for portfolio & virtual gallery
