Anna Bera (born 1985) is a sculptor and designer from Lechów in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, a lecturer at the SWPS School of Form in Warsaw, a member of Nów. New Craft Poland, as well as a scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. She runs her own studio in Warsaw, where she creates predominantly large-format sculptures and utilitarian objects made of wood. In her work, Bera focuses on the sensory perception of the materiality of the world. She searches for a particular way in which objects exist in relation to space and people, and often creates objects that are heavy and bulky or rich in detail and texture, thus almost provoking physical contact. The object’s function is sometimes merely an excuse for making it; the form disrupts the function and turns it into a means of artistic expression, just like shape or colour. Bera’s works have been exhibited in Poland, Europe, USA, and South-east Asia, including at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, the Lapidarium of the National Museum in Prague, the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft in Ditchling, the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design in Tallinn, as well as at numerous festivals and fairs, including Milan Design Week, Wanted Design Manhattan, Collect Art Fair in London, and Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair.
