Arnolfini transforms into a colourful, immersive wilderness of nature and folklore this summer
Known for his striking installations, Jonathan Baldock combines ceramics, textiles and sound to create environments that are both playful and thought-provoking. His work draws on folklore, traditional craft and personal history, shaped by skills passed down through generations of making.
Held features a monumental wild bear sculpture, commissioned by Arnolfini. It invites visitors into a direct physical encounter — not to be held, but to hold us.
Guardian 5-star review of Jonathan Baldock: Held
“The English artist has created a tense world of folkloric psychedelia and pagan aesthetics that is weird, threatening – and utterly compelling”
Eddy Frankel, The Guardian
At Arnolfini, the galleries become a colourful, sensory landscape inspired by the natural world, somewhere between a garden and a wilderness. Aether — a work formed from beeswax, ceramic and glass — hovers overhead, evoking a space between worlds. At the entrance, visitors are welcomed by The Caretakers, ceremonial costumes adorned with hand-stitched plant motifs, setting the tone for a space rooted in care. Beyond, a vivid array of ceramic and wall-based textile sculptures unfolds: flowers with faces emerging from petals, trailing roots and body parts, creating a cultivated wilderness that blurs boundaries between the human and the natural.
Sound by artist Luke Barton and a custom scent by Lora Hemy fill the space, adding to the exhibition’s immersive and intimate atmosphere.
The bear itself draws on a long cultural history, from ancient myth to the familiar comfort of childhood toys. Over the course of the exhibition, its surface will become worn through use, carrying the marks of the thousands of people who encounter it. Its face, modelled on a scan of the artist’s mother, adds a deeply personal dimension.
In an age increasingly defined by loneliness, accelerated by the rise of AI and a gradual loss of communal spaces, Held proposes physical closeness as a radical and necessary gesture. The Arnolfini galleries are transformed into an environment of comfort and care in which we can slow down and feel our way back to nature, and each other.
Jonathan Baldock, Held Monograph
Published to coincide with Jonathan Baldock’s exhibition, this first monograph dedicated to the artist’s work brings together the new commission alongside a wider overview of his practice to date.
Featuring newly commissioned texts, the publication explores key themes in Baldock’s work, including world-building, making and materiality, nature and nurture, and the body. Contributors include Gemma Brace, Head of Exhibitions at Arnolfini, writer and curator Glenn Adamson, Sarah Coulson, Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and artist and Professor Dominic Johnson.
The monograph is available to purchase from the Arnolfini Bookshop or online.
Partners and Supporters
This exhibition has been generously supported by the Henry Moore Foundation
Images:
Lead image: Jonathan Baldock ‘Held’ 2026 (Installation View) at Arnolfini. Courtesy of the artist and Arnolfini. Photography by Dan Weill.
Nature to be commanded must be obeyed, 2019. Hessian, felt, silk thread, polymer, semi-precious stone. 250 x 203 x 13cm (98 3/8 x 80 x 5 1/8in). Photo by Stephen White & Co.
A foliate offering, 2023, Ceramic stoneware, 60.5 x 34 x 36cm. Photo by Mark Reeves. Courtesy of Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
The Caretakers, 2021. Textile, rubber, foam and wood. two figures: 206 x 52 x 55cm (81 1/8 x 20 1/2 x 21 5/8in) each. Installation view: Material Worlds at Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Hayward Gallery Touring. Photo by Luke Pickering.
Moment in the sun, 2023. Felt, hessian, polymer, turquoise and quartz, 253 x 158cm (99 5/8 x 62 1/4in).
All images and works copyright Jonathan Baldock. Courtesy of the artist.
Explore the Exhibition: Resources
About the Artist
Jonathan Baldock
Jonathan Baldock works across sculpture, installation and performance, creating immersive environments that explore the body, materiality and human connection. His practice draws on traditional craft techniques, particularly textiles and ceramics, combining processes such as…
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