Sitting Around (2021)

This series looks back at 2020 and how our lives changed instantly. The first of the series was sculpted in January when life was as we knew it, performing artists could perform and strive for perfection. In March it became clear that life will never be the same. Anneke spent Lockdown in Dubai. There she waited, like all the people of the world. Keeping a close eye on the effects of Covid19 on life. Stories of performing artists having to canceled shows went viral. Exhibitions had to be postponed. The rest of the series focusses on that we do while we wait for life to get back to normal.

Be your Own Man (2020)

Be your own man is series of work focusing on the marginalized men of the 2020s. Women got liberated with equal opportunities in education and work satisfaction, but we have boxed men into categories with unacceptable expectations. In the world where women do not have to be kitchen-dwellers staying at home raising kids any more, we still expect of father to be the providers even if the mother is not his partner anymore. We expect of men to ignore their own desires and personalities to become the role the previous century assigned to them. We have a sense of what a man should dress like and how he should behave even if he is extraordinarily creative and different. The oppressed cannot liberate themselves, it is the oppressor that needs to lift the restrictions. When we box men into unacceptable expectations, we are the people who should set them free. We should be the ones allowing men to be the roles that define them. Let them build their role in society around their personalities like women have been able to do in the last half century. 

Stainless Steel pieces (2019)

Anneke pushes the boundaries of the perception that Art must be cast in Bronze. In a selected series of Stainless Steel pieces, With the first in the series, she explores the reflective quality of the stainless steel and how that can punctuate the essence of the piece. In the rest of the series, Anneke explores how strength can be accentuated with the material it is cast in.

Sister Water (2019)
If water was a beautiful woman, would we protect her?

In a world where oil is becoming a dirty word and fresh water is our only true gem, we pollute the arteries of mother earth on a daily basis. Anneke Bester takes a stand in this momentous time of realisation. The time in the life of mother earth that is critical to her survival. Anneke is currently spending lots of time in Dubai, surrounded by the sand dunes that is a reminder of what could be New Zealand in the not so distant future. Like many other artists she feels the urgency to instigate change.

 In this body of work she shows us a mirror, nothing catches the eye like a mirror, depicting water in a human form, we are after all mostly water. She shows us the beauty of water in the way we understand beauty. She shows us the delicateness of water and the eco systems it affects in the way we want to protect it. She shows us the feeling water brings to the lives it touches. She shows us the reflection of ourselves we see in the water around us. When we look into the water surrounding us, are we going to see a beautiful clear reflection or will it be polluted with our own arrogance?

Solace of the Soul (2018)
In this series of works, Anneke celebrates femininity and its strength. A large collection of one-off works as well as edition pieces makes up this series. The one-off pieces are partially covered in fabric enhancing the flow and strength of the pieces. Anneke started exploring with coloured patinas on the fabric of these majestic figures.

In some cases, the fabric is the part supporting the figure. The tools of modesty become the female strength.  The pieces wrapped around the cones speak of the energy that overcomes all. In Christchurch after the earthquake traffic cones were everywhere due to the destruction caused to roads and buildings a city got destroyed and put back together with hope and love and it was shown with flowers coming out of the top of traffic cones.

This same hope and love and the tenacity to overcome any tragic event was what inspired the pieces wrapped around the cones. Driving down the roads of Christchurch, seeing the flowers, Anneke thought of life, hope sprouting from a traffic cone. She created a series of 6 pieces in total wrapped around cones.

Edition pieces

One Offs still available

Revealing (2017)
With Anneke’s 2017 collection of works she exposes herself in her artwork. Her uncovering of her own emotion is clear in the jubilant series of work. Each piece shows her as artist experiencing an emotion related to the life changing experience of finding her soulmate. Some pieces are still covered in fabric while others break free from the cover and concealing of her emotions. Her pieces are not faceless anymore; she gives them more detail and identity than in her previous work. This series of work is close to her heart.

Veiled (2016)
Anneke explores the contrast of the exposed and the hidden. Where the female form had been celebrated in its purity, Anneke veils them in her latest work. Her recent stay in the Middle East has emphasised the idea of beauty being impossible to hide no matter how well you cover it. Beauty shines through on posture, pose, movement and line. Fabric cannot hide the beauty of the spirit within.

2015 Collection
The series Anneke produces in 2015 focuses on the beauty of entertainment. In her day to day work life Anneke is involved in the performing arts. This series looks into the lives and the people behind the performances. She captures the moments of balance and beauty as these performers entertain us. She enhances the lines created by the performing artists as they uses their bodies to the extremes and pushes the boundaries of human ability, then Anneke pushes it beyond. She leaves the viewer pondering the possibility of human ability and keeps them entranced.

Balance (2014)
This series is Anneke’s most recent exploration into the human condition. She focuses on the fine balance that we have to maintain in our lives on a daily basis. Anneke looks into her own life to find what it is that keeps us from tumbling over. It could be a person in support, a secure grounding or even finding the restful moments. She uses dance poses to express how self-awareness can aid in centring ourselves. To take the metaphor one step further, she casts these pieces in bronze and challenges gravity in the process.

2013 & Earlier

Matthew Williams and Anneke Bester join forces to put on an exhibition that takes the viewer with them as they explore their creativity. They contemplate movement, progression and the ideal, each expressed in their own vernacular of treatment; Matt in the Zen-like essence of the form juxtaposes Anneke in the complexity on the form.  As their first joint exhibition, they showcase the fringes of expression, the inner and outer, the rough and smooth, the stay or go.

Matt explores form in its fundamentality. His strong line has a mesmerizing quality; the movement is dynamic and the expression clear.  As a flip side, Anneke brings the more traditional to the show. Her selection of paintings and sculpture emphasizes flight; exposing another layer in the duality of this pair of artists. Anneke works in Oils on Canvas and Bronze while Matt works with Wood, Stone and Cast Metal. The selection of work on show ranges from small interior pieces to larger exterior works.