Man Falls By Charming Baker

If contemporary artist Charming Baker can count Damien Hirst amongst his fans, there can be no doubt that this is a man of great talent. But don't just take Hirst's word for it: Baker's esoteric prints do all the talking, with their offbeat subjects, extraordinary execution and unique aesthetic. His work is best known for its relationship with destruction: Baker often damages his pieces by drilling, cutting, occasionally shooting at, and often defacing them in some way, to question the precious valuation of art in contemporary culture. 'Man Falls' depicts a smudged but detailed painted image of a jockey, mid fall from his white and chestnut coloured mare. Baker has mixed up mediums, creating a textured, woven background, that seems at sections to intersect with the oil painting, while adding depth with thin golden lines that stretch towards the horizon point. The layered materials clash in a way that confounds expectation, as the lines of abstraction, pasted onto the figurative sketch, transform the traditional image. It may not an easy piece to read but, in the words of Hirst: "who cares? Charming Baker's paintings are great."