Spanning sculpture, installation, and performance, Baldock’s unique practice utilises traditional craft materials and techniques such as ceramics, textiles, weaving and hand-stitching. The ritualistic embrace of these time consuming techniques reveals an artist who feels the act of making is crucial, allowing the work to embody the sociocultural, economic and historical context of itself and its creator. The artist notes; I’m really drawn to the fact that craft materials have an association with working people’s histories. I think that’s very important to me. First and foremost, they have always been used to make functional objects, which subsequently might have been embellished or decorated to make them more personal. I think that’s a very human thing to do. So there’s an honesty about crafts; they relate to the human experience on a level that other mediums can’t.

Felt Cute brings together a new series of ceramic ’Maskes’ that form an important and ongoing foundation to Baldock’s practice. Each Maske starts the same way, one flat piece of clay each one the same dimension. From here Baldock manipulates each one in ever more outlandish and individualistic ways, drawing clear personalities from within. The clay is folded, cut, moulded and pressed to create surreal and humorous references to eyes, mouths ears and noses. Here, Baldock cleverly plays with a cognitive process called pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon that causes people to see faces in inanimate objects. Variations in mood and personality are conveyed through Baldock's ongoing and sophisticated experimentation with ceramic techniques; combining an eclectic array of coloured clays, glazes and painterly finishes.

The sculptures Unnatural habits, Almost Human and Lips do shrink as you get older (2024) are all objects of transformation sitting somewhere between vessel, functional object and bodily sculpture, with the titles speaking of something ‘in-between’. Cast in clay, Baldock uses parts of his own body (along with his mother’s) to build each sculpture and unite personal history and mythology; I was thinking how voluntary shapeshifting can be a means of liberation. Even when the form is not undertaken to resemble a literal escape, the abilities specific to the form allow the character to act in a manner that was previously impossible.

Pictured (left to right)

Maske CXXIV, 2024

Maske CXXXVIII, 2024

Maske CXXVIII, 2024

Maske CXXXIV, 2024

Maske CXXVII, 2024

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All works Glazed stoneware

Baldock’s affinity with nature is deep rooted and is reflected most prominently in the work Imagination creates reality, 2024. Created in the dimensions of a standard door, the hand stitched textile panel is both a threshold and a portal between worlds, acting as bridge for transformation. The work portrays a moonlit nature scene with winding trees within a secluded landscape, seemingly reflecting the trees and nature of the historic Humlegården that sits directly opposite the gallery. Through Baldock’s manipulation of both material and form a face seemingly also appears out of the vista, with the moon and sun acting as eyes and the mountains a mouth.

Baldock was born in 1980 in Kent, UK. He lives and works in London. He completed his BA at Winchester School of Art (2000-2003), followed by the Royal College of Art, London with an MA in Painting (2003-2005). Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Touch Wood’, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK (2023); ‘through the joy of the senses’, Charleston Lewes, Sussex, UK (2023); ‘Unearthed’, Kunstverein Göttingen, Germany (2023); ‘we are flowers of one garden’, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK (2023); 'I'm Still Learning', La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2021); ‘Warm Inside’, Accelerator, Stockholm, Sweden (2021); and ‘Me, Myself and I’, Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway (2020). Baldock has recently participated in group shows including ‘Poor Things’ at Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, UK (2023); ‘Strange Clay’ at Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2022); ‘Threadbare’ at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK (2021); ‘Human Conditions of Clay’ at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales (2021); and the inaugural Towner International biennial at Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK (2020). His works are included in prominent collections including Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon; Arts Council Collection, London, England; The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, England; The Roberts Institute of Art, London, England and Saatchi Gallery, London, England.