Daniel Baker is an artist, curator and researcher. A Romani Gypsy, born in Kent, he holds a PhD on the subject of Gypsy aesthetics from the Royal College of Art, London. Baker curated FUTUROMA at the 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2019. He acted as exhibitor and adviser to the first and second Roma Pavilions; “Paradise Lost” and “Call the Witness” at the 52nd and 54th Venice Biennales respectively. Baker’s art and writing examines the role of art in the enactment of social agency through an eclectic practice that interrogates contemporary art discourse and its social implications via the reconfiguration of elements of the Gypsy aesthetic. His work can be found in collections worldwide. Publications include WE ROMA: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, Ex Libris and FUTUROMA. Former Chair of the Gypsy Council, Baker currently lives and works in London.
Education
2011 PhD; Gypsy Visuality: Gell's Art Nexus and its potential for artists, Royal College of Art, London: Thesis available @ https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/431/
2002 MA Sociology/Gender and Ethnic Studies, Greenwich University, London
1983 BA Hons. Fine Art, Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, London
Collections
British Museum, London
House of European Culture, Brussels
Tishman Speyer Collection, New York M
UBS Collection, Zurich
Zabludowicz Collection, London
Collection,
Solo Exhibitions, Residencies and Commissions
2020 FUTUROMA (curator), Villa Romana, Florence, Italy: https://www.villaromana.org/front_content.php?idcat=69&idart=1500&lang=2
2019 FUTUROMA (curator), Collateral Event of the 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, (curator): https://eriac.org/FUTUROMA/
2017 Daniel Baker, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow: Scotland:http://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/glitch-film-festival--daniel-baker--intermedia-exhibition
2015 100 thousand blows, Gallery8, Budapest, Hungary: http://gallery8.org/en/news/2/100/daniel-baker-100-thousand-blows
2015 Makeshifting: structures of mobility, Cardiff Story Museum, Cardiff & Art Central, Barry, Wales
2015 Dark Glass, Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin, Germany: http://www.kaidikhas.de/en/exhibitions/dark_glass/views
2013 Shine, Welsh Assembly, Ty Hywel Building, Cardiff Bay, Wales
2013 Shine, The Riverfront, Newport, Wales. Portfolio
2011 R-in-R, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, NL
2010 STORE, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2009 Suspect, FEINKOST Gallery, Berlin, Germany: http://www.galeriefeinkost.com/feinkost/cms/website.php?id=/en/index/exhibition/daniel_baker.htm
2009 New Work, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2008 The New Gilt, FEINKOST Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2008 Interfere, Residency at Centre for Drawing Project Space, WCA, UAL, London, UK: http://cfd.wimbledon.ac.uk/webnotes/node/10
2006 Lookinglass, Novas Gallery, London, UK
2005 No Travellers, Victoria Hall, Oakham, Rutland, UK
2003 Bodies, Corn Exchange Gallery, Newbury, UK
2000 Romani Jivapen Jinapen, commissioned by BAMS, British Museum, London, UK: http://www.bams.org.uk/medal-detail.php?medal=120
Group Exhibitions
2020 Actually, the Dead are not Dead. Una forma de ser, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (upcoming)
2019 (Re-) Conceptualizing Roma Resistance, ERIAC, European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, Berlin, Germany
2019 FUTUROMA (curator), 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2018 Shiftwork, g39, Cardiff, Wales: www.g39.org/cgi-bin/website.cgi?place=exhibitions&id=5232
2018 SUKAR, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, New York, USA: https://eriac.org/974-2/
2017 The Travellers, KUMU Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia: http://kumu.ekm.ee/en/syndmus/travellers-voyage-and-migration-in-new-art-from-central-and-eastern-europe/
2017 ERIAC, Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin, Germany: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/08/roma-artists-launch-art-cultural-centre-institute-berlin
2016 InterRailing: A Cultural Engine, EU Commission, Europe House, London.
2016 VISPO A} HOY, Die Studiengalerie, Volkshochschule, Aachen, Germany
2016 TITLE, Film: https://vimeo.com/173753415
2016 The Travellers, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland:
http://zacheta.art.pl/en/wystawy/podroznicy?filters=eyJpZCI6WyIzMTY2IiwiMzE2MSJdLCJvcmRlciI6IkZJRUxEIChpZCwzMTY2LDMxNjEpIn0%3D
2016 (Re-) Conceptualizing Roma Resistance, Hellerau, European Center for the Arts, Dresden, Germany
2016 Sites of Repressed Remembrance, Hungarian Scientific Academy, Budapest, Hungary
2015 Under Erasure - Aspects of Roma/Gipsy/Traveler Life in Europe, Gerlesborgsskolan Bohuslän, Gerlesborg, Sweden
2015 When the Oil Runs Out, People Will Need Horses, Performing Romani Identities: Strategy and Critique (PRISaC), Rivington Place, London, UK
2015 Performing Romani Identities: Strategy and Critique (PRISaC), OFF-Biennale Budapest 2015: http://offbiennale.hu/kategoriak/60-2/
2014 Stopping Places IV, Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin, Germany: http://www.kaidikhas
2014 Performance Matters: Strategy, Critique and the Politics of Romani Representation in the UK and Beyond, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA
http://britishstudies.rutgers.edu/events
2014 Houses as Silver as Tents, The Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland
2013 Houses as Silver as Tents, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
2013 FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellations, Prospects, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
http://www.formerwest.org/DocumentsConstellationsProspects/Contributions/WishYouWereHere
2013 The Legend of the Shelves, AUTOCENTER, Berlin, Germany
2013 ROMAISM - Constructing Roma Cultural History, Gallery8, Budapest, Hungary
2013 Black Butterflies, New School House Gallery, York, UK
2012 Art on Fire, Camberwell Space, London, UK
2012 Elective Affinities. Imaginings of the nomadic in contemporary art, Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Germany
http://www.nomadsed.de/nomaden-sesshafte/ausstellungen/wahlverwandtschaften/index.html
2011 Reconsidering Rroma – Aspects of Rroma and Sinti life in Contemporary Art, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanian, Berlin, Germany
http://www.reconsidering-roma.de/ausstellung.html
2011 Stopping Places, Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin, Germany: http://www.kaidikhas
2011 Expansive Mood, Mansion House, London, UK
2011 54th Venice Biennale; contributor and advisor to Call the Witness; 2nd Roma Pavilion: http://www.callthewitness.net/Testimonies/MirrorMirror
2011 What the Folk Say, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK
2010 FEINKOST Triennale, (FEINKOST, Berlin)
2010 During Office Hours, VGF Verband Geschlossene Fonds e.V, Berlin, Germany
2010 Sovereign European Art Prize, Barbican, London, UK: http://www.sovereignartfoundation.com/art-prizes/europe/gallery/?year=2009
2010 Videodrome, AUTOCENTER, Berlin, Germany
2010 Destination X, Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg, Sweden
2010 Off the Shelf, Slade, UCL. London
2010 The Atrocity Exhibition, (FEINKOST, Berlin)
2010 Art Rotterdam, (FEINKOST, Berlin)
2009 Sleeper, FEINKOST at Brown, London, UK
2009 Reality Sandwiches, Art News Projects, Berlin, Germany
2009 Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium (Feinkost)
2009 Living Together, Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria – Gasteiz, Spain touring to MARCO, Vigo, Spain:
http://www.marcovigo.com/en/content/living-together-strategies-co-habitation-0
2009 Ventriloquist, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK (curated by Emma Dexter): http://www.timothytaylorgallery.com/exhibitions/ventriloquist1/
2009 Hannah beyond the mirror, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy
2009 More love hours than could ever be repaid, FEINKOST Gallery, Berlin, Germany:
http://www.galeriefeinkost.com/feinkost/cms/website.php?id=/en/index/exhibition/lovehours.htm
2008 The Forgotten Europeans, Museum of the City of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
2008 Deleted Scenes, FEINKOST Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2008 Artissima, Turin (FEINKOST, Berlin)
2008 Volta 4, Basel (FEINKOST, Berlin)
2008 Volta 4, Basel (Steinle Contemporary, Munich)
2008 Paint Lab, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2008 Paradise Lost, Kampa Museum, Prague, Czech Republic
2008 Paradise Lost, Hungarian Cultural Institute, Brussels, Belgium
2008 Acts & Actions, Café Gallery, London, UK
2008 Viennafair, Vienna (FEINKOST, Berlin)
2008 Kairos, Aflred Topfer Foundation FVS, Hamburg, Germany
2008 Travellers, Gallery Steinle, Munich, Germany: http://www.steinle-contemporary.de/exhibitions/year/2007
2007 Artissima, Turin (FEINKOST, Berlin)
2007 CHAVI, Novas Gallery, London, UK
2007 Nature and Society, Ethnographic Museum, Dubrovnik and Glyptotheque, Croation Academy of Science and Art, Zagreb, Croatia
2007 52nd Venice Biennale; contributor and consultant to Paradise Lost; 1st Roma Pavilion: http://www.romapavilion.org/artists/daniel_baker.htm
2007 Prague Biennale, Refusing Exclusion
2007 Productive Matter, Café Gallery, Southwark Park, London, UK
2007 No Gorgios, co-curator at Novas Gallery, London, UK
2007 Paranoia, Freud Museum, London, UK
2007 What are Feelings for?, Centre for Drawing, WCA, UAL, London, UK
2007 Contemporary Gypsy, group show, Mascalls Gallery, Paddock Wood, Kent, UK
2006 Paranoia, Leeds City Art Gallery & Focal Point, Southend, Kent, UK
2006 Second Site, Stephen Lawrence Gallery London, Appleby and Stowmarket, UK
2006 When in Rome V, Third Floor Gallery, Southampton, UK
2005 When in Rome IV, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, UK
2004 When in Rome III, Castlefields Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
2004 When in Rome II at Homeland, Spacex Gallery and concurrent venues around Exeter, UK
2004 Passing Places, exhibition of Gypsy Culture, Hertford Museum, Hertford, UK
2003 When in Rome I, Art House Gallery, London, UK
1999 Paintings at Beardsmore Gallery, London, UK
1997 Oriel Mostyn open exhibition, Llandudno, Wales
1997 Royal Over-Seas League open exhibition, London, UK and Edinburgh, Scotland
1996 DROM, a multimedia collaboration exploring Queer Romani identities, funded by the London Arts Board, performed at The Place Theatre, London, UK
1995 Toynbee Hall, London, UK
Talks
2019 Representing Europe's Roma and Travellers: Research, Art and Activism, UCL Festival of Culture, London: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/festival-of-culture/events/2019/jun/representing-europes-roma-and-travellers-research-art-and-activism
2019 International Symposium: “Soot Breath: On Land, Law and Bodies”, The Sowroom in collaboration with Goldsmiths, London, UK:
https://www.theshowroom.org/events/international-symposium-soot-breath-on-land-law-and-bodies
2019 What is Romani Art?, Villa Romana, Florence, Italy
2016 2016 TITLE a PRISaC Film & Discussion at Autograph ABP, INIVA, London: https://www.facebook.com/1374706492841097/photos/p.1615036455474765/1615036455474765/?type=3&theater
2016 Establishing National Pavilions: Roma and Seychelles, Iniva, Stuart Hall Library, London: http://www.iniva.org/library/news/establishing_national_pavilions
2015 Roma Aesthetics and the Mediation of Meaning, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Doctoral School, Budapest, Hungary
2015 Acting Out, Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Arts & Culture National Symposium, g39, Cardiff, Wales
2015 Roma Aesthetics, Performing Romani Identities: Strategy and Critique, CEU Summer School, Budapest, Hungary: http://summer.ceu.hu/romani-2015
2015 Practices and Notions of The Migrant Image Valand Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden: info
2015 Performance Matters 2, TrAIN Lecture, Chelsea College of Art, University of Arts London, UK
http://www.transnational.org.uk/events/205-performance-matters-2-daniel-baker-and-delaine-le-bas
2014 Performance Matters: Strategy, Critique and the Politics of Romani Representation in the UK and Beyond, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA
http://britishstudies.rutgers.edu/events
2012 Gypsy Aesthetics, Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Germany
2012 Strategies of Sovereignty, Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Germany
2011 Was heißt denn hier Zigeuner? Bild und Selbstbild von Europas größter Minderheit, Allianz Forum, Pariser Platz 6, 10117 Berlin:
http://www.bpb.de/files/1EY1YB.pdf
2010 Gypsy Aesthetics, Slade School of Art, UCL, London
2007 Artist’s talk; Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2007 Roma visuality and the significance of the Roma Pavilion, Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice, Italy
2007 Roma art, Fiction or Function? (dis)located subjects, (re)defined communities: Politics of representation and the role of the art in the age of global mobility, Roma Pavilion, Venice, Italy
2003 Artist’s talk; ‘Silenced Voices’ – PEN International, Royal Festival Hall, London
Texts
2018 Nomadic Sensibility, in Posthuman Glossary, eds. Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova, Bloomsbury Academic London, UK
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/06/21/book-review-posthuman-glossary-edited-by-rosi-braidotti-and-maria-hlavajova/
2017 Shifting visibilities: the social implications of a Roma aesthetic, in IDENTITIES, Romaphobia and the Media. Vol. 4 issue 6, 2017:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1070289X.2017.1380268
2017 ENTER + Creative Manual: www.divebuki.sk/en/enter-magazine/enter-kreativno-manualos-(en)#.WjmwDN9l-00
2017 The Travellers: Voyage and Migration in New Art from Central and Eastern Europe, Magdalena Moskalewicz, Lugmik, Tallinnn, Estonia: http://deskgram.org/p/1586375055525039327_1917071458
zacheta.art.pl/en/e-sklep/katalog/the-travellers-voyage-and-migration-in-new-art-from-central?galeria=1
2017 ENTER + Kreativno Manuálos: http://www.divebuki.sk/en/enter-magazine/enter-kreativno-manualos#.WYr1QlGGO00
2015 Gallery8, European Roma Cultural Foundation and Gallery8 - Roma Contemporary Art Space, Budapest, Hungary
2015 The Queer Gypsy, in Roma Rights; The Journal of the European Roma Rights Centre: http://www.errc.org/uploads/upload_en/file/roma-rights-2-2015-nothing-about-us-without-us.pdf
2013 Romano Kher, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland: https://zacheta.art.pl/en/mediateka-i-publikacje/romano-kher-o-romskiej-sztuce-estetyce-i-doswiadczeniu?filters=eyJhY3RpdmUiOjEsImlkIjp7InZhbHVlIjoiODI1OCIsIm9wZXJhdG9yIjoiIT0ifSwibWVkaWEiOiIyOCJ9
2013 WE ROMA: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht and Valiz, Amsterdam: www.valiz.nl/en/publications/we-roma.html
http://www.bak-utrecht.nl/?click[id_projekt]=104
2013 FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellations, Prospects, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin http://issuu.com/hkwberlin/docs/former_west_booklet_english#embed
2012 Bohemia Revisited, The European Magazine: www.theeuropean-magazine.com/daniel-baker--2/6284-roma-in-europe
2012 Wahlverwandtschaften - Imaginationen des Nomadischen in der Gegenwartskunst, Gutenberg Verlag and Druckerei GmbH, Leipzig, Germany:
http://www.nomadsed.de/nomaden-sesshafte/ausstellungen/wahlverwandtschaften/index.html
2011 Reconsidering Rroma – Aspects of Rroma and Sinti life in Contemporary Art, Wallstein Verlag, Gottingen, Germany:
http://www.reconsidering-roma.de/publikation_files/reconsidering_roma_leseprobe.pdf
2010 Mapping the Invisible: EU Roma, Black Dog, London: http://blackdogonline.com/all-books/mapping-the-invisible.html
2010 Ex Libris, onestar press, Paris, France: http://www.onestarpress.com/Ex-Libris?art=222
2008 Breaking beyond the local; the function of an exhibition, in Third Text, Picturing Gypsies; an interdisciplinary approach to Roma representation. Vol. 22, issue 3, No 92, May: http://www.thirdtext.com/c/back-issues/092/
2008 Centre for Drawing Project Space - Webnotes issue 4: http://cfd.wimbledon.ac.uk/webnotes/node/32
2006 Funny ha ha, (essay commenting on media representation of Roma) in Catalyst magazine, The Campaign for Racial Equality, 8.12.2006:
http://www.juliushonnor.com/catalyst/Default.aspx.LocID-0hgnew0o4.RefLocID-0hg01b001006009.Lang-EN.htm
Citations
2018 The Quilt of Romare Bearden’s Life, The Nation, July 13th 2018, by Aiden Levy:
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-quilt-of-romare-bearden-life/
2017 Kapitál: https://www.facebook.com/Kapit%C3%A1l-100786223958825/?hc_ref=ARR1x0p98P5h2TcRY2BeM1G6goJg_eaq2sCoDiUGVI13vwMaN3drQFpdDNLWQo0ahfE
2010 Art Practice as Research; Inquiry in the Visual Arts, Sage Publications, California, USA: http://artpracticeasresearch.com/tag/daniel-baker/
2007 Paradise Lost; the First Roma Pavilion, Timea Junghaus, Prestel Verlag, Munich:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/arts/articles_publications/publications/paradise_20090615/paradise_20090615.pdf
2007 Research RCA, Sandra Kemp, Royal College of Art, London, 2007
2006 Meet Your Neighbours, Contemporary Roma Art from Europe, Timea Junghaus, Directory of Roma Artists, for The Open Society Institute:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/arts/articles_publications/publications/neighbors_20090615/neighbours_20090615.pdf
Interviews
2020 Ministry of Arts Podcast: Episode 78
2020 Notes from the waiting room #1, Villa Romana, Florence, Italy. https://www.villaromana.org/front_content.php?idcat=99&idart=1473&lang=2
2014 We Roma: искусство о современном положении цыган: http://theoryandpractice.ru/posts/8278-on-contemporary-roma-art
2013 Bec Zmiana; Notes 88: http://issuu.com/beczmiana/docs/notes88-internet/168
Press
2017 “A place to call our own”, The Guardian, 08/06/17: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/08/roma-artists-launch-art-cultural-centre-institute-berlin
2017 A Berlin, des murs pour promouvoir la culture rom, Le Monde, 10/06/17: http://mobile.lemonde.fr/m-moyen-format/article/2017/06/14/a-berlin-des-murs-pour-promouvoir-la-culture-rom_5144133_4497271.html?xtref=acc_dir
2017 Endlich sichtbar werden, Tagesspiegel, 17/04/17: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/ein-archiv-fuer-roma-kunst-endlich-sichtbar-werden/19678264.html
2015 Makeshifting, CCQ magazine, issue 8: http://issuu.com/ccqmag/docs/ccq_magazine_issue_8
2015 The Queer Gypsy, in Roma Rights 2 2015: Nothing About Us Without Us? Roma Participation in Policy and Knowledge Production, Budapest, Hungary
2015 Visualidad Gitano, in Revista Bostezo: http://www.revistabostezo.com/bostezo10.php
http://issuu.com/bostezo/docs/bostezo_10/19?e=14240071/11090352
2012 Wahlverwandtschaften - Imaginationen des Nomadischen in der Gegenwartskunst, Hajo Schiff, Kunstforum Nr. 215 / April-June 2012
2009 Reciprocated Love, Ana Finel Honigman, ARTslanT: http://www.artslant.com/no/articles/show/5670
2007 All Roads Lead to Roma, Fiona MacDonald, Metro, 5.9.07
2007 A szabadsag letelepitett vandorai, Bihari, Nepszabadsag, 8.8.07: http://www.nol.hu/archivum/archiv-459539
2007 Some Black Sea Pavilions, Aaron Moulton, Flash Art, July, Vol. XL No255
2007 Paradise Lost, Victor Misiano, Domus, May, issue 903
2007 Paranoia, Andrew Hunt, Art Monthly, February, issue no 303
2007 Paranoid Visions, Colin Martin, The Lancet, 3.2.2007
2007 Paranoid? This lot really ought to be, Peter Conrad, The Observer, 28.1.2007
2007 Carefully Deranged, Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Sunday Telegraph, 21.1.2007
2006 Catalyst Magazine, Abigail Dunn, 7.7.2006: http://www.juliushonnor.com/catalyst/Default.aspx.LocID-0hgnew0hc.RefLocID-0hg01b001006009.Lang-EN.htm
2006 Paranoia, Alfred Hickling, The Guardian, 5.7.2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2006/jul/05/art
2006 Second Site – the Caravans roll into town, Sarah Vine, The Times, Section 2, 27.2.2006
