William Cobbing | Sculptures, 2014–2024
We are delighted to announce our first exhibition for 2025, William Cobbing: Sculptures, 2014–2024. Curated in conjunction with William Cobbing’s new commission for The Art Block at Selfridges London, which will be unveiled on the 6th January 2025, this new exhibition at Canopy Collections HQ is the first to span ten years of the artist’s sculptural practice.
Rooted in sculpture, Cobbing’s practice encompasses a diverse range of media, including video, performance and installation. Clay is a central material in his work, both in its raw and fired forms, and entropy a key concept. The figures that emerge from his sculptural and performative works often appear to be caught in a temporal state of metamorphosis, blurring the boundary between body and earth. Cobbing's interest in the relationship between clay and communication draws from ancient myths of creation, as well as technology and the way we have developed our senses and thoughts within this constant push and pull between the analogue and the digital. The results are tactile works highlighted by masterful application of glazes that convey universal ideas about what makes us human, our physical vulnerabilities as a species, our humour and our endless fascination for storytelling.
Over the past decade, William Cobbing (b. 1974, London) has gained international recognition for his pioneering work which brings together performance, sculpture, video and digital art. He has exhibited in museums worldwide including with the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Hayward Gallery, London; Tate Liverpool; Camden Arts Centre, London; Freud Museum, London; Studio Voltaire, London; MIMA, Middlesbrough; The Issey Miyake Foundation, Tokyo; NOMAS Foundation, Rome; TENT, Rotterdam; Gemeentemuseum The Hague; Keramiek Museum Princessehof, The Netherlands. His work is held in international collections including the Arts Council England; Wellcome Trust, London; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University; NOMAS Foundation, Rome; MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania.
William Cobbing has been commissioned by The Art Block at Selfridges, London, to create a monumental sculptural installation that will be on view from January to October 2025. Titled Janus Season, this new work is inspired by Janus, the god of beginnings, transitions, duality, passages and endings who gave his name to the month of January. Coinciding with the launch of this landmark project and his solo exhibition at Canopy Collections HQ, the artist’s new monograph, Social Substance, will be published this winter 2025.
William Cobbing | Sculptures, 2014–2024
9–31 January 2025
Private view: 9 January, 6–8pm
Canopy Collections HQ
3 Bloomsbury Place
London WC1A 2QA