Lawrence James Bailey grew up in the post-industrial ruins of 1980’s Britain before studying Fine Art at the Hull School of Art and later at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. His interest in geography, history, theatrical set design, suburban life, religious cults, protest movements, and folklore serve as points of reference in his work. People’s relationship with the landscape forms a backbone to this work – in particular how individuals use their surrounding environment for hidden, subversive or introverted acts.

“I’m always fascinated in marginalized landscapes and no-mans-lands; areas on the edge of cities which are normally banished from our sense of what is pastoral or romantic. I depict these bastard spaces as being in flux, unstable, uncertain and mysterious, just like the people who thrive there. I use textiles as it’s a material which can be stretched, torn, folded, cut and fused together… therefore mirroring the transient nature of the land around us and the earth under our feet. Textiles are also an art form which fluctuate between being a two-dimensional pictorial space and being a three-dimensional object. They can also be utilitarian or totally useless”.

• Recent exhibitions at Galerie Bart: Rambling in Arcadia 2023 • Big Art No.5 2020 • The Unofficial Bastard Countryside Tour 2020 • Drawing Room Madrid 2020 • Around the Corner 2019.

Born in 1976 in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, Lawrence James Bailey currently works and lives in Amsterdam. Lawrence graduated with a BFA from the Hull School of Art in 1998. He was then accepted for a two-year residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam, which he successfully completed in 2001.

Lawrence has been exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions all over the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Spain and Latvia since 1995. These include for instance the ‘Rijswijk Textiel Biennale’ in Museum Rijswijk in 2019, ‘Brownsfield Research Centre’ at AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent in 2018 and ‘Survival Kit 6 / Utopian City in the Latvian Centre’ For Contemporary Art, Riga in 2014. Lawrence and Galerie Bart have been working together since 2017, resulting in solo, duo and group exhibitions and fair participations, such as Drawing Room Madrid.

In 2020 Lawrence was artist in residence at AIR Guiniguada in Gran Canaria. In 2016 he won the Wonderlust photo contest organised by De Hallen in Haarlem and in 20o2 he received a stipend from the BKVB Fund. His work can be found in the collections of the Amsterdam Museum, Europol, Huize Frankendael, the Amsterdam Graphic Atelier, CBK Amsterdam, Deiska, Hotel WOW and De Ateliers. In addition, Lawrence has been involved in the creation of multiple magazines and theatre productions.

• view complete cv as pdf.

2020 •
27.02 Descubrir el Arte Drawing Room: dibujo contemporáneo.
24.02 AD Architectural Digest Un resumen de lo que veremos en DRAWING ROOM 2020.
16.02 Kooness Magazine The increasing attention of the art market on drawing.

2019 •
21.08 Quiltersgilde Bezoek aan de Textiel Biënnale in Museum Rijswijk by Ytsje Tilma.
04.07 The Liminal Residency The Loop: a journey around Amsterdam’s edgelands, editorial.
18.06 Textiel Biënale Rijswijk Lawrence James Bailey – Cross-overs by Frank van der Ploeg.
24.05 Textiel Plus Lawrence James Bailey over zijn textiele werk ‘No Man’s Land’ by Dorothé Swinkels.

2015 •
19.01 Failed Architecture Amsterdam’s Former Totems of Dissent by Lawrence James Bailey.