Viewing room

Tipping Point Big Issue Show

Big Issue x charming baker

Jealous East

03 Apr 2017 — 16 Apr 2017

The Big Issue is delighted to reveal that the edition of April 3 will be an art special, guest edited by Charming Baker, one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Built on a theme of Tipping Point, the special edition of the magazine will feature an array of British visual art heavyweights, all contributing unique and bespoke work.

In honour of the art special edition, Charming Baker has reached out to the Art World and asked individuals to delve into their work archives and pick a piece of art representing a ‘Tipping Point’. The contributors assembled from Charming Baker’s vast contact book reads like a who’s-who of Brit Art and fashion. They include Jonathan Yeo, Sir Peter Blake, Rachel Howard, Hugo Wilson, Antony Micallef, Mat Collishaw, Keith Tyson, Sue Webster & Tim Noble, David Shrigley and Sir Paul Smith. It’s testament to The Big Issue’s value in British society that these, and many others, signed up straight away to do what they could to get involved.

In keeping with The Big Issue focus, this special magazine will also feature art by men and women on the edge of society, either suffering from addiction, mental health or homelessness issues who have used art as a means and outlet in facing problems in their lives. The edition is set to be an Arts tour de force and one of British magazine publishing’s most collectible and hotly anticipated titles of the year.

Charming baker

Born in Hampshire 1964, Charming Baker spent most of his early life travelling around the world following his father, a Commando in the British Army. At the age of 12, he and his family finally settled in Ripon, North Yorkshire. Baker left school at 16 and worked various manual jobs. In 1985, having gone back to college, Baker was accepted onto a course at the prestigious Central Saint Martin’s, where he later returned as a lecturer. After graduating, Baker worked for many years as a commercial artist, also developing his personal work. Solo shows at the Truman Brewery in 2007 and the Redchurch Street Gallery in 2009 were followed by a show in New York in 2010. In 2011, Baker’s London show at the Mercer Street Studios cemented his place as one of the rising stars in the world of Contemporary Art. In 2012, a sculpture entitled ‘Triumph in the face of absurdity’ was displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, (the piece, a collaboration for the 2012 Olympics between the artist and Sir Paul Smith). His 2013 LA exhibition entitled 'Lie Down I Think I Love You' cemented his relationship with the infamous PMM Art Projects, and caused a mass of media interest across America. Baker’s work explores well-trodden and intrinsically linked themes; life, love, death, terror, joy, despair… with an underlying reference to the classics and a dark humour. Although primarily a painter with an interest in narrative and an understanding of the tradition of painting, in recent years Baker has produced sculptural pieces in a wide and varied choice of materials, (from the anciently traditional to the not so).