Rooted in sculpture, William Cobbing’s practice encompasses a diverse range of media, including video, performance and installation. Clay, both in its raw and fired forms, is central to his work, as is the idea of entropy. The figures that emerge from his sculptures and performances often appear suspended in a state of metamorphosis, blurring the boundary between body and earth. Cobbing’s interest in the relationship between clay and communication is evident in his glazed ceramic book covers, where tactile surfaces and pools of glaze take precedence over textual content, echoing both tablet computers and ancient clay tablets.

Cobbing's work is held in international private and public collections, including NOMAS Foundation, Rome; MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University; Bouwfonds Art Collection, The Netherlands; Wellcome Trust, London. He has exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery, London; UMOCA, Utah; The Art Block at Selfridges, London; Hayward Gallery, London; Tate Liverpool; Camden Arts Centre, London; TENT, Rotterdam; Studio Voltaire, London; The Issey Miyake Foundation, Tokyo; Canopy Collections, London; Cooke Latham Gallery, London; Sid Motion Gallery, London; Flowers Gallery, London; Messums West, Salisbury. In 2025, Canopy Collections curated his first retrospective, titled William Cobbing: Sculptures, 2014–2024.