CV - Lou Baker Artist

Exhibitions, residencies and events below with an asterisk have some participatory elements
Current exhibitions, residencies and events

*2023 Dreamtime Fellowship 2023, initiated and funded by Luke Jerram, at Spike Island, Bristol
2023 seam collective x The Loom Shed, Meet the Makers, online, with Lou Baker, Joy Merron and Nina Gronw Lewis, 30 Oct, 7-8pm BST
*2023 seam collective, A Visible THREAD, Black Swan Arts, Frome, 16 Sept - 29 Oct
*2023 Social Scaffolding, Trowbridge, 2-3 Silver Street, BA14 8AE
*2022 EMERGE 9-month Graduate residency at Bath Spa University, from Nov 22

Forthcoming exhibitions, residencies and events

*2023 Emerge End of Year Showcase, Bath Spa University, Sion Hill Campus, 18 -30 Oct.
*2023 Social Scaffolding, Swindon, 10 - 26 Nov
*2024 seam collective, A Visible THREAD, Llantarnam Grange, Cwmbran - 2024, 17 Feb-4 May

Select past exhibitions, residencies and events

2023 Wells Art Contemporary, Life/Blood, installation of red knitting, 5 Aug -2 Sept.
*2023 Social Scaffolding, Bristol 15 - 30 July
*2023 Social Scaffolding, Gloucester, 17 June - 2 July 2023
*2023 Emerge Summer Showcase, Newark Works, Bath, 14 - 21 June
*2023 A Visible THREAD with seam collective, Fine Foundation, Swanage, 16 May – 7 June
*2023 Social Scaffolding, Weston Super Mare, 20 May – 4 June 2023
*2023 Social Scaffolding, Create@#8, 8 Town Street, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 5BG, 21 April - 6 May 2023
2022 - 2023 New Contemporaries 2022, South London Gallery, London, 9 Dec 2022 - 12 Mar 2023
*2022 A Visible THREAD, with seam Collective, at ACEarts, Somerton, 26 Nov - 24 Dec
*2022 permission to play, a participatory collaboration with Oliver Bliss, as Baker and Bliss, at Strode College, Somerset, 14 Nov.
*2022 Social Scaffolding, EMERGE, Bath Spa University, Sion Hill campus, 13 - 23 Oct
2022 New Contemporaries 2022, Humber Street Gallery and Ferens Gallery, Hull, 23 Sept- 27 Nov
*2022, Social Scaffolding, with Somerset Art Weeks, Venue 99: Unit 2, Orchard Shopping Centre, Taunton, TA1 3TP, 24 Sept - 9 Oct
2022 Black Swan Open, Frome, 17 July - 11 Sept.
*2022 permission to play, a participatory collaboration with Oliver Bliss, as Baker and Bliss, at Museum at Night: Grayson’s Art Club, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, 26 May
*2022 A Visible THREAD, seam Collective research residency, The Holburne Open, University of Bath, with The Holburne Museum, Bath, 25 Mar – 23 Apr
*2022 permission to play, a participatory collaboration with Oliver Bliss, part of The Holburne Open, University of Bath, 25 Mar – 23 Apr
2021 MA Degree Show, Locksbrook Campus, Bath Spa University, 25 – 30 Sept
2021 Regeneration, Stone Lane Sculpture Gardens, Devon, 1 Jun – 31 Oct
2021 UNLOCKED at 44AD, Bath, 6 - 11 July
2021 Mixing it up residency at The Garage, Bristol 1 -19 June
*2021 Social Knitwork, The Art Cohort, with Kat Dawe Schmeisser, 1 May - 7 Jun
2021 Real Space, a month-long residency at Michael Pennie Gallery, Bath Spa University, with Tim Heath and Sarah Kniveton 1 Mar -1 Apr
2020, MA Interim Degree Show, Bath Spa University, Locksbrook, 18 - 22 Sept
*2020 Wishing trees, 4 public spaces, Bristol 24 Mar – 1 Nov
2020 Incendiary at Pound Arts, Corsham, July - Aug
2019 International Contemporary Stitched Art exhibition with The Society for Embroidered Work, Clerkenwell Gallery, London, 12 - 17 Nov
*2019 B-Wing, Shepton Mallet Prison, Somerset, part of Somerset Art Works, 21 Sept – 6 Oct 2019 RWA Sculpture Open, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 16 Mar – 2 Jun
*2019 Incendiary at Stroud Valleys Artspace, Stroud, curated by Patricia Brien, 6 - 10 Feb.
*2018 disquiet at Walcot Chapel, Bath with Clare Thatcher,18 - 23 Sept
*2018 Living Sculptures, at Make Space, alongside the Woman's Hour Craft Prize, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery,18 July
*2018 Subversive surfaces; taboo and fragility at Trowbridge Town Hall Arts, with Gina Baum, curated by Katie Ackrill, Jun 9 - Jul 14
2017 PRILIC with Impermanence Dance Theatre at Jacobs Wells Baths, Bristol, Dec 8 - 16
*2017 Synecdoche, [dis]place residency, The Vestibules, College Green, Bristol, Sept 4 to Oct 2
*2017 Refuge: in search of safety, Fringe Arts Bath, May 26 to June 11
2016 The Memory of Space - Space of memory, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, Nov 24 - 30, curated by Jan-Phillip Fruehsorge, director of Fruehsorge Contemporary Drawing Gallery and The Drawing Hub, Berlin.
2016 Unravelling: an exhibition of knitting and crochet art, Bow Arts' Ice House Studios, London, Oct 6 -16
*2016 Bodies: a group residency by Synecdoche, The Unit, Bristol, Sep 1-29
2016 Privy at Th e Edwardian Cloakroom, Bristol, Jun 22 - 29
2016 The Cartesian Cut?, Fringe Arts Bath, 27 May - 12 Jun
2016 Pattern at Fringe Arts Bath, May 27 - 12 Jun
2015 The Embroiderers' Guild Graduate Showcase, Knitting and Stitching Show, Harrogate International Centre, Harrogate, November & Alexandra Palace, London, October
2015 The Degree Show, University of the West of England, Bower Ashton campus, Bristol, Jun
2014 Synecdoche at The Christmas Steps, Christmas Steps Gallery, Bristol, 2 - 24 Dec
2014 Synecdoche, Embassy Tea Gallery, London, July

Online Exhibitions

2018	Intent, Part 1: an online art exhibition with Cultivate Gallery, London, and Organ, curated by Sean Worrall, January 16th - ongoing
2017	Red, an online art exhibition by Cultivate, curated by Sean Worrall, February 27th - ongoing

Gallery Experience

I have worked with others to plan, organise, promote, co-curate, set up and run numerous exhibitions. I was part of the Bristol-based artists’ group, Synecdoche Art Community, from 2014, and one of the organisers from 2016-2020. We were a group of graduates from the Drawing and Applied Arts degree at UWE, Bristol. We hosted a number of exhibitions in Bristol and one in London. For some of the later Synecdoche exhibitions I helped organise and curate the exhibition, but didn't show my own work. I have worked with several other exhibition groups too – Unravelling, Privy, Emergence, Align and Dozen. I have also set up solo exhibitions at The Knitting and Stitching Shows in London and Harrogate as part of my Embroiderers’ Guild Scholarship.

Volunteering

September 2015 - December 2017
I worked with a lead artist, Rachel Davies, at Make Your Mark with Fresh Arts at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, for one afternoon a week, facilitating art activities with elderly patients with dementia.

September 2016 - June 2017
I mentored a third year student who’s doing a degree in Contemporary Art and Professional Studies at Weston College, accredited by Bath Spa University.

Other art related work

2017, February - March
I worked with Fresh Arts, mentoring a final year student, Emily Jacobs, who was doing a Foundation Degree in Creative Art Therapies at the City of Bristol College as she facilitated a series of 6 art workshops, Life Books. We worked with neuropsychiatric patients at Southmead Hospital, Bristol as part of some ongoing research into Arts on Referral.

September 2015 - June 2019
Part-time assistant at The Art Shop, Bower Ashton campus, UWE