About
Max Bainbridge is a UK based artist whose sculptural works carved from wood, reflect a need to create a tangible and grounded presence though the physicality of the sculpted object in space. Working with trees in their entirety Bainbridge seeks out wood that has fallen where it once grew, forming direct and intimate connections to land and place through his recognition of the tree as a being that can occupy both our inner psyche and the physical character of its former site.
In doing so, his search for the true essence of the tree is ever present within the form of his large-scale vessels and free-standing sculptures that echo their past life across surface and form. For each work he takes the natural shape and character of the tree itself and responds to it directly, allowing the inherent agency of the wood to pushback and inform sculptural decision-making as he works. Embodying this transformation from the monumental presence of the tree into object son an intimate human scale,his works become quiet reflections on our relationship with the natural world and the importance of evaluating our place within it.
Born in London in 1991, Bainbridge studied Fine Art where he graduated in 2013 as a photographer and sculptor. In 2014 he co-founded the studio practice Forest + Found, with his partner Abigail Booth whom he works alongside to produce wider projects, exhibiting throughout the UK and internationally.Selected solo exhibitionsinclude:Idylls of the Field,Lemon Street Gallery,Cornwall, UK(2022),Shallow Lands, Informality Gallery, Oxfordshire, UK (2021/22), Biophilia, Make Hauser& Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK (2021)Walking the Line, Oriel Myrddin,Carmarthen, UK (2019)and Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, UK (2018); Outland, Egg, London, UK (2018).Selected group exhibitions include:From Nature, Informality, Henley-on-Thames, UK, (2021),Common Thread, New Art Centre,Roche Court, UK (2020), Jerwood Makers Open, JerwoodSpace, London, UK (2019/20), Levelling Traditions, Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton,UK (2018),Collect Open,Saatchi Gallery, London (2018).In 2017 Forest + Found were artists in residence at Pitt River’s Museum, Oxford (2017)
