lerka njers katalog london A5 (3)

A CREATIVE ADVENTURE IN COLOUR AND FIRE
Ljerka Njerš is one of the most versatile and internationally acclaimed Croatian
artists. Trained in ne and applied arts, she is primarily known as a ceramicist
who found her inspiration in traditional and modern techniques adapting
them to suit her rich imagination and ne sensitivity. She is not unknown to
the London public, but this time she comes to London to reveal how she is
successfully at ease with a new medium of painting on silk and remind
us of her creativity with samples of her artwork in other materials.
In preparation for her grand retrospective exhibition in the Museum
of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb in 2007, she surprised the curators with
her new venture in glass moulding and painting. It was such a
revelation that commissions followed and her amazing,
glistening glass panels ranged from table tops to precious
jewellery. In an impressive richly illustrated monograph that
followed in 2012, Ljerka was hailed for her last adventure in
glass as a pinnacle of her career. Little the authors knew that
four years later Ljerka once again will apply her creativity to
another material but retaining her style and choice of
themes. The light brush stroke imaginatively ows on a
sensuous surface of pure silk and her vibrant colours are
present in her digitally manipulated photographs.
Whichever material Ljerka works with, whichever technique
she applies, she does it with total dedication and love for her
work. She could not have expressed it better than she has
done in her artist's statement for the catalogue of her 2016
exhibition in the Studio of the Modern gallery in Zagreb:
“I have been creating since I remember. The inexhaustible
possibilities of today's technology, combined with ancient
techniques, made me simply fall in love with ceramics,
especially raku and obvara. My favourite subjects are the female
body, owers and leaves, which always have to t within a given
shape. The line of the drawing is my favourite concern. As I work I
anticipate the happiness my creation will give to the viewer. All the
beautiful things which surround me inspire me: the setting of the sun,
the impression of the leaf on wet clay…”
We are grateful to Ljerka for sharing with us the happiness of her creations.
Flora Turner-Vučetić, London, March 2018