Jill Berelowitz
Body Forms
Online Exhibition: February 22nd - March 15th 2021
The High Performance Art Gallery is pleased to present our first online only exhibition.
This new direction for the Gallery begins with the innovative and widely exhibited South African sculptor, Jill Berelowitz. The Gallery has worked closely with Jill for almost 10 years exhibiting her work at Terminal 5 Heathrow Airport, the T5 Sofitel Hotel and in the British Airways First Wing.
This exhibition brings together recent works by Jill with the predominant theme of the body and the multitude of forms that it can present. From the emergence of 'Aurora' breaking forth from its shell signalling new life to '3 Graces' where a trio of elegantly poised figures come together and rise ever upward. Through Jill's work we see an evident appreciation of the classics of figurative sculpture but also a renewal and reinvention taking this most ancient of artistic practices to new heights.
A further point that elevates Jill's sculpture is her strong focus on patina, something that she is constantly exploring with careful consideration given to how subtle changes in the finishing of an artwork can evoke differing feelings and reactions from the viewer. Jill is skilfully able to produce timeless interpretations of female & male forms in highly polished white bronze with the work 'Moving Forward', while in parallel channelling nature's own complex and unique earthy patinas on the branches of 'Circle of Life' without us ever being in any doubt that both are from the hands of the same artist.
Photography credits:
Photographed by Cristina Schek - 'Rocky the Elephant', '3 Graces', 'Leaf', 'Venus Art Deco Lamp', 'Athena Art Deco Lamp', 'Circle of Life', 'Aurora', 'Earth Mother', 'Cosmos' and 'Moving Forward'
Photographed by Alex Prior - 'Moving Forward' (Outside the Dorchester Hotel'
Biography
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1955, Jill Berelowitz studied sculpture, first under Karen Jarozynska and then at the Johannesburg School of Art. Jill moved from her native South Africa to London 26 years ago and is one of the capital’s most innovative sculptors, known for her bronze, steel and optical resin works.
Whether pursuing her long-standing passion for the intimacy and movement of the body, or flexibly working to a brief, Jill’s detailed understanding of anatomy and organic form gifts her work with sensual, contemporary appeal.
Jill’s broad interpretations of life’s cycles and developments from within a solid core run through her diverse sculptural output, suggesting that the female nude is simultaneously a personal and a universal allegory for nothing less than the geography and continuity of humanity. Jill creates work focused on the human form and regeneration wherein bodies are simultaneously solid and abstracted, dynamic and fixed.
Jill has exhibited recently at Sotheby’s, Heathrow Terminal 5, as well as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for Accenture, at Christie’s, and on Cork Street for Rado and Elizabeth Arden. Her high-profile commissions include her recent ‘Diving Girl’, which was positioned at the entrance to London 2012 the Olympic Village, life-size Pair Oar rowers at Henley-on-Thames, Investec Challenge, Goldsmith’s Guild, Unilever, Old Mutual and ‘Core Femme’ in Cavendish Square for the Westminster City of Sculpture Festival.