Maria Pinińska-Bereś

Polish sculptor and performance artist Maria Pinińska-Bereś (1931-1999) played an active role in shaping the artistic community of Kraków. Her sculptures initially followed the modernist trend popular among Polish artists during the Thaw, a period of de-Stalinization in the late 1950s. She gradually transformed her style and developed her own unique aesthetic in the mid-1960s, this is seen in Lady with a Bird (1964), in which she added small quilted blankets to concrete sculptures. Later, this aesthetic incorporated new materials such as paper maché, linen, burlap, leather, and plywood, and primarily used white, pink, and yellow tones, evident in her Corset and Psycho-Small-Furniture series created in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pinińska-Bereś began exploring femininity and the various cultural oppressions experienced by women in the mid-1960s, these insights and experiences were then translated and embedded into her practice. Her art then predominantly featured pink, soft, stuffed cotton forms, as seen in her work Sea Foam-Arisen (1977), which remained consistent throughout her life. ...

The Approach is co-directed by Jake Miller and Emma Robertson. Located in Bethnal Green above The Approach Tavern, for over twenty years it has operated an internationally recognised programme from its East London base. The gallery is known for discovering artists and establishing their careers as well as making inter-generational curated group shows a strong focus. The list of represented artists includes the Estates of important overlooked female artists Heidi Bucher and Maria Pinińska Bereś, as well as seminal British collage artist John Stezaker, together with established and emerging artists including Magali Reus, Peter Davies, Lisa Oppenheim, Sandra Mujinga, Pam Evelyn, Sara Cwynar, Sam Windett and Caitlin Keogh. Over the years the gallery has operated parallel programmes in additional gallery spaces in London’s West End (The Approach W1) and in Shoreditch (The Reliance). The gallery is currently based solely in its original East End location and continues to expand its programme, showcasing its represented artists in the main gallery space, and both represented and non-represented artists in The Annexe, a smaller, more experimental space at the back of the building. ...