Fred Baier

Fred Baier
Park Life, 2017 (designed 1989)
Edition 1 of 10
Stainless steel, automotive printed vinyl
85 x 70 x 65 cm
2ft 9 ½ x 2ft 3 ½ x 2ft 1 ⅝ in.

“I make pieces that are intended as pioneering furniture statements rather than products. They are observations and thoughts about my time and chosen field. I try to be an expert in all aspects of my creativity. My work is a way of life not just something I do for a living. I’m an explorer more than a designer. An adventurer in search of knowledge, understanding, ability and anything that might help to expand my envelope of possibility. I use whatever materials are appropriate for the project in hand although the studio is set up for woodworking, which was my starting point.”

- Fred Baier on his artistic practice.

A self-described ‘furniture artist', Baier creates visually challenging and complex furniture that sits somewhere between art and contemporary furniture design. His diverse and inventive body of work is characterised by an embrace of technology and bold experimentation with form, colour and design, as well as an inquisitive and uniquely imaginative approach to functional problem-solving. A veneer of humour is balanced by an underlying seriousness, which lies in his commitment to using creativity to funnel challenging mathematical problems into something which can be used.

Baier was amongst the first furniture designers to recognise the potential of computers and digital rendering programs as tools to assist and advance the practice of three-dimensional design.

Fred Baier was one of the first designers to work with Paul McManus, who developed the first solid modelling computer program ever. Baier’s work is characterised by recognisable shapes, anti-’serious’ and popular imagery, geometry and illusion, and modern physics.

Fred Baier
Here (brown), 2013/4
Oak cylinder, Madrona veneer, MDF
89 x 38.4 x 30.5 cm
1ft 5 ⅜ x 1ft 3 ½ x 11 ⅛ in.

Fred Baier
There (blue), 2013/4
Oak, anodised aluminium, board material
89 x 35 x 31 cm
2ft 11 ⅛ x 1ft 1 ¾ x 1ft ¼ in.

Fred Baier was born in 1949 in Yorkshire, England. He is currently a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art and the Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as a fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal College of Art, and at Northern Arts.

His work is included in several major collection which include the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA; and Hackney Museum, London. He was also commissioned to create furniture for the library at the House of Lords in 2011.

Baier has exhibited internationally. Locations include Melbourne, Australia; Vienna, Austria; Germany; Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan; and New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. in the United States. Most recently an exhibition in 2021 at the New Art Centre at Roche Court, a solo exhibition titled Fred Baier: form swallow’s function.