A retrospective exhibition of works by well known Northland artist and designer Jan Beck (passed away 2012) will open at The Little Black Gallery starting at 4pm Friday 21 February. Please join us from 4.00pm for the opening.
Ms Beck was a talented and successful painter and sculptor, exhibiting in England and New Zealand, and selling paintings both domestically and overseas.
She graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts with an honours diploma of fine arts, trained as a teacher and and taught art at Tauranga Girls College for two years before embarking on an extended working holiday in the United Kingdom and Europe. During her four years away she enrolled in the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome, and took up a position as fabric designer in the Studio Stella Pines.
After returning to New Zealand she established herself as a designer as well as a painter, while retaining her connection with Rome, showing her own collection and an Italian collection in Sydney and Melbourne twice a year. Her career included co-ordinating the interior colours for Toyota Corolla cars and designing Crown Lynn Potteries' centenary ceramic dinnerware range. She also created the British paints 1000 colours range; and designed the bed and bath co-ordinates for Bremworth Carpets, and T-shirts and bags for tourist outlets nationwide.
Later in life she became well known for her lovely painting. She was also a talented teacher, and ran art classes for children and adults.
In the 1990s, Ms Beck and her husband Barry Dyer moved from Auckland to Langs Beach where they ran a bed and breakfast business. In 2000, they moved to Kerikeri and developed a 1.25-acre sub-tropical garden, which was open to the public.
The exhibiton will run until mid-March.
Our opening hours are shown below.
We are also available by appointment - please call 021 771 299 or 09 212 6160