Contemporary Art, Furniture & Craft Gallery · Licensed Café
Alex Lowery recent paintings
Yo Thom studio pottery
Petter Southall furniture
Café: paintings by Martyn Brewster ARE, Vanessa Gardiner and Frances Hatch RWS with wood engravings by Howard Phipps ARE RWA SWE
Leading ceramic artists
9 May – 4 July 2026
In a celebration of Dorset and the artists who thrive here, beyond words brings the brilliance of Alex Lowery’s paintings together with the quiet beauty of Yo Thom’s latest pottery and the lean, lovely lines of Petter Southall’s furniture to the galleries at Sladers Yard. A strong group show in the Café gallery includes paintings by Martyn Brewster ARE, Vanessa Gardiner, Frances Hatch RWS and wood engravings by Howard Phipps ARE RWA SWE. We also feature an ongoing show of leading ceramic artists and other designer makers.
ALEX LOWERY’s stunning new paintings of Portland and West Bay return to familiar places with new eyes. Moving between naturalism and abstraction, Alex Lowery’s paintings seduce us with texture and light. Finding the beauty in corrugated iron and chimney pots in these seaside places, his compositions often lead us through a nexus of buildings to the sea and sky.
Born 1957 in London, Alex Lowery studied at Bath Academy, Sir John Cass School of Art and the Central School of Art in London. He has shown regularly in Dorset and London since 1994. His work is in distinguished private collections all over the world as well as the Dorset, Great Ormond Street, and St George’s Hospital Collections, Dorset Museum Collection and the Fidelity International Art Collection. He has shown at Sladers Yard since it opened in 2006. He lives in Charmouth with the artist Vanessa Gardiner.
YO THOM’s most recent pottery introduces exciting new scale to her forms as well as new designs. In addition to the very popular domestic pots that have made her name, she has been working on larger pieces with warmer colours which still retain her unique aesthetic. The results are gorgeous platters, vases and Tsubos, decorated with captivating sgraffito. Her pottery draws on both British and Japanese techniques and traditions.
Yo Thom was born in Tokyo and came to UK in 1996 to complete an MA in Ceramics at the Kent Institute of Art and Design followed by a two-year apprenticeship with Lisa Hammond MBE at Maze Hill Pottery. She moved to Shaftesbury, Dorset, in 2009 and has since had a family. She is an elected member of the Craft Potters Association and has exhibited widely throughout the UK. Her work draws on both Japanese and British pottery traditions and practices.
PETTER SOUTHALL responds to superb natural timber with furniture designs that combine fluidity of line with tactile textures and physical strength. His furniture is enhanced with understated and brilliantly judged detailing. Using a combination of boat-building and fine cabinetmaking techniques his work is built to last and to age beautifully. He uses ethically sourced timber and natural finishes, with an emphasis on harmony with the human body.
Trained as a traditional wooden boatbuilder in Norway, Petter learned cabinetmaking with James Krenov at the College of the Redwoods in California. He came to Britain to study at John Makepeace’s forward-looking sustainable design college at Hooke Park and has been making his distinctive furniture in Dorset since 1991.
Alongside numerous and varied private commissions in UK, Norway, Italy and USA, Petter designed and made the directors’ dining room at the National Gallery, the boardroom for Barbican Art Gallery, reception and boardroom furniture for companies and corporations in London, Europe & locally for Bridport Town Hall and LSI . He has designed and made public art seating for Cambridge Science Park, the Wessex Ridgeway Sculpture Trail, Sanctuaries for Newton Abbott and Minehead Hospitals, a range of benches for the Macmillan Garden at Hereford Hospital and benches for Lyme Regis Museum. In 2019 he was commissioned to make a ground-breaking steam-bent pavilion for a Show Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. He is always pleased to discuss ideas and commissions.
To register your interest in any of the artists in the exhibition, or any enquiries please contact us on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk.
In the Café: paintings by Martyn Brewster ARE, Vanessa Gardiner, Frances Hatch RWS and wood engravings by Howard Phipps ARE RWA SWE.
Additional ceramics by Björk Haraldsdóttir, Peter Hayes, Lise Herud Braten, Gabriele Koch, Derek Matthews, Emily Myers, Fiamma Colonna Montagu, Adela Powell, Sue Ure and Paul Wearing. Bronze sculpture by Clare Trenchard. Textiles by Margo Selby. Books, prints and accessories will also be constantly renewed.
