Continuing our annual In the Window partnership, the Bluecoat Display Centre, Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and Liverpool Irish Festival have selected emerging ceramics talent Laura Matikaite as our 2022 featured artist.
“My take on the concept of ‘hunger’ lies in the contrasting worlds of monochrome and polychrome.
My work goes through a cycle, in which, after a season of monochrome, monotone, creating surfaces on the spectrum of Black to White, I hunger for colour, and this sparks a new range or multitoned, coloured and playful ceramic work.
Before long feeding back into the sophistication and elegant simplicity of monotone. Allowing the form to say something else.
Colour has the ability to create a mood, I use this to my advantage when creating a body of work, that refuels the making process.
It is through a balance of expressing developed design ideas and creative intuition that I absorb the nutritious versatility of clay and glaze chemistry.” – Laura Matikaite
Read more about Laura and her work on the Liverpool Irish Festival website.
Bluecoat Display Centre (Bdc) is an independent, regional centre for artistic activity. It brings together craft makers and audiences, in an environment that encourages creativity, collaboration and the exchange of ideas. A registered charity since 2010, based in Liverpool city centre, Bdc runs a gallery; education and community outreach programmes. The Centre provides over 60 local and 300+ nationally selected contemporary craft makers and designers a retail platform, displaying and selling work.
Originating as one of this country’s earliest craft and design galleries in 1959, Bluecoat Display Centre was the first public gallery space within Bluecoat. We are an advocate, facilitator and audience maker for contemporary crafts.
The Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) is the national agency for the commercial development of Irish designers and makers. DCCI stimulates innovation, champions design thinking and informs Government policy using funding from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation via Enterprise Ireland. It has over 60 member organisations and over 3,000 registered clients.
Liverpool Irish Festival (LIF) brings Liverpool and Ireland closer together using arts and culture. It is this use of arts and culture as an instrument for observing, learning, sharing and debating Irishness, in the particular context of Liverpool, which makes us unique. We represent Northern Ireland, the Republic and the Irish diaspora’s creativity throughout the festival. Our thematic approach to programming, critical-thought and curation develops depth, resonance and inclusion. In this context, we believe the Liverpool Irish Festival is the only Irish arts and culture led festival in the world. We can’t find another!