Opening to coincide with Black History Month, this is the first solo exhibition by Donald Baugh, a designer-maker in wood. Key works on display will include a series of vessel-shaped, non-functional sculptures in different wood species. The runic designs with which some are engraved derive from Baugh’s realisation that ‘indigenous people from around the world used the same tools, and you see a repetition of patterns.’

Donald Baugh was born in Chiswick in 1961, the son of parents from the Windrush generation who emigrated from Jamaica. After a career as a furniture designer and maker, in the last decade he has increasingly turned to more experimental, freestanding sculpture.

Influenced by Charles Eames and the Bauhaus movement, the asymmetrical forms of Baugh’s wooden sculptures also play on the organic nature of the material and its relation both to living trees and to other found objects, such as shells. He uses spray-paint to highlight curves or lines in bright colours, evoking the vibrancy of the Caribbean and the joyfulness of nature. For him, wood is ‘almost like a nervous system’, with ancient connections to human craftsmanship.
 
Also on display are sculptures from Baugh’s Masai series: tall wooden statues in the shape of abstract human figures. They respond to the myth that the ancestors of the Masai were once visited by huge-headed giants, and also recall the colossal heads of Mexico’s ancient Olmec civilisation.

Baugh argues that wood is increasingly being recognised as a medium for art. ‘I think more people will turn to it,’ he says. ‘It’s the most natural material. Everyone relates to it.’ His own works reflect his quest for authenticity. ‘You have to find your own aesthetics. It’s your fingerprint.’