Roelof Bakker, CV
Born Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Lives Hastings, UK
Education
2019 MA (Distinction) Fine Art, Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge, UK (MA show awarded 2019 Cambridge Artspace Residency
Solo exhibitions
2022 Negative Press London, 10 Years – Bower Ashton Library, Bristol
2021 The Spots That Never Went – Photofusion, London
2020 The Spots That Never Went – Cambridge Artspace, Cambridge
2019 After The Fall – Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge
2016 How Many Hopes Lie Buried Here Mother – Dutch Centre, London
2012 Still – Foyles, London
2010 Still – Hornsey Town Hall, London
Group exhibitions, events, readings, talks
2024 Pathways, discussion with artist Noor Ali Chagani, Cambridge Artspace, Cambridge
2024 Symbiosis – London Alternative Photography Collective, 100 Years Gallery, London E8, 18-27 January 2024
2024 Shutter Hub Open 23/24 – ARB, Cambridge, 27 November 2023-16 February 2024 2023 Spoken Word Event with Naomi Woods – Hastings Writers Group, Hastings Bookshop
2023 Negative Press London – Small Publishers Fair, Conway Hall, London 2023 VG Lee introduces – Hastings Book Festival, Hastings
2023 Imagined Delft Blue Pottery Bots, LGBTQ+ show – Moth, St Leonards-on-Sea
2023 Too Utterly Too Too – Institute of Engineering, Cambridge University, Cambridge
2023 The Night Diana Died/I Remember A Time (Princess) – World Book Night, Bower Ashton Library, Bristol 2023 The Spots That Never Went – The Performing Photobook, Format Festival, Derby
2022 The Night Diana Died – Photo Fringe Book Event, 71 The Makers Gallery, Lewes 2022 The Love That I Need – We Are Here, Cambridge Artspace, Cambridge
2022 Regulars at The Queer Hut – Alternative Processes, online Pride exhibition curated by Caleb X Cole
2022 Lilac – live performance at The Hastings Bookshop, Hastings
2022 Unknown Man Walking – Ghosts in the Machine, Bower Ashton Library, Bristol. Also Hong Kong Design Institute Library, Hong Kong
2022 Bristol Artist’s Book Event, UWE Campus, Bristol
2022 Performance with Darryl Peers at Stormy Weather/Derek Jarman Protest! symposium – Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
2021 Artist’s book talk with Kim Shaw, Tamsin Green and Wendy Aldiss – Photofusion
2021 Artist’s talk – London Independent Photography
2021 Unprocessed – Prima Facia, curated by Amir Brito Cador, Bower Ashton Library, Bristol 2021 The Other Side of the Hedge — Bristol Artists Book Event, The Lost Weekend, Arnolfini, Bristol
2020 Unprocessed – Why Publish?, Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol
2020 These Pleasures a Wayward Distraction – Reality and its Disorders, Espacio Gallery, London
2020 Fragile – Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?, World Book Night 2020, United Artists, online exhibition
2019/2020 Artquest peer group – Photographer’s Gallery London, facilitator Daniel Regan
2019 Not Knowing You, Not Knowing Me – Salon 19, Photofusion, London
2019 The Spots That Never Went – Print: A Catalyst for Social Change, Bury Art Museum, Bury
2019 Night Walks – London Independent Photography, analogue slideshow and talk, London
2019 Artist’s talk – Photofusion, London
2018 How Many Hopes Lie Buried Here Mother – King’s College, London, talk at Dialogues of the Dead,
2017 Projected Lies – The Republic of Brexitopia, Espacio Gallery, London
2017 Yellow – Polari Literary Salon, Southbank Centre, London
2015 Beneden/below – Grote Enk, Arnhem, Netherlands
2015 London Short Story Festival – Waterstones, Piccadilly, Unthank Books event – reading Green
2014 Strong Room – Polycopies Photobook Fair, Paris Photo
2014 Strong Room – F Book Show, 72 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Selector – 25th Annual Members Exhibition, London Independent Photography with Francis Hodgson and Colin Pantall
2012 Leap – Oooooh Art, Bruce Castle Museum, London
2012 Wanderlust – Marginal Arts Festival, Roanoke, Virginia, US
2011 Wanderlust – The Meantime Multiplex, Meantime Project Space, Cheltenham Spa
2010 Analogue photography workshop – South Harringey Junior School
Selected publications/writing
2023 Some Queer Animals (Negative Press London)
2023 Arrival - Refugee Week, Storytime, Hastings
2022 Cover artist – The Book Arts Newsletter, No 149
2022 Indigo (fiction) – Confingo Journal, autumn 2022
2022 Lost Planet (fiction) – Responses to Pale Blue Dot (1990) by Voyager 1 (Pilot Press)
2022 The Love That I Need – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2022 The Night Diana Died/I Remember A Time (Princess) – box set with two artist’s books, Negative Press London
2022 Black (So Many Men) (fiction) – Responses to Love’s Work by Gillian Rose (Pilot Press)
2022 Screen Two and Sunflowers – Responses to Derek Jarman’s Blue (1993) (Pilot Press)
2021 All The Sunflowers – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2020 Unprocessed – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2019 The Book Arts Newsletter, No 129, December 2019-January 2020, cover artist
2018 The Spots That Never Went – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2018 Curtains and Windows, David Rose and Roelof Bakker (fiction and photographs) – Confingo, issue 10 (Confingo Publishing)
2017 Printed Lies – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2017 Yellow (fiction) – Unthology 9 (Unthank Books)
2016 How Many Hopes Lie Buried Here Mother – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2015 Green (fiction) – Unthology 7 (Unthank Books)
2015 Blue (fiction) – Unthology 6 (Unthank Books)
2014 Red (fiction) – Unthology 5 (Unthank Books)
2014 Strong Room, Roelof Bakker and Jane Wildgoose – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2012 Still – artist’s book, Negative Press London
2011 Books – Rethink: Idea, Output, Exchange, Issue 1 (editors Portland Green and Michael Atavar)
Articles
2021 Photomonitor – exhibition review ‘The Spots That Never Went’, Mitchell Moreno https://photomonitor.co.uk/exhibition/roelof-bakker-the-spots-that-never-went/ 2020 The Blue Notebook, journal for artists’ books, Vol 14, No 2, spring/summer 2020 (Impact Press at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol) – ‘The Spots That Never Went, the Creative Processes and Thinking Behind the Making of an Artist’s Book’, Roelof Bakker
2020 European Journal of Life Writing, Vol 9, July 2020 – ‘A Boy’s Own Trauma: Revisiting a Photograph Recorded in a Nazi Concentration Camp First Encountered as a Child’, Roelof Bakker, https://ejlw.eu/article/view/36907
2018 European Journal of Life Writing, Vol 7 – ‘Strong Room: Material Memories and the Digital Record’, Jane Wildgoose and Roelof Bakker, (2018) https://ejlw.eu/article/view/31507/28880
Negative Press London (www.neg-press.com) books are in international collections, including:
Wellcome Foundation Library, London; Chelsea College of Arts Library, London; Artists’ Books Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Centre for Fine Print Research Archives, Bristol; The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, US; Brooklyn Museum, New York, US; Yale Centre for British Art, Newhaven, US; Ramón Menéndez Pidal Foundation (Fundación Ramón Menéndez Pidal), Madrid, Spain; Artists’ Book Collection, Bavarian State Library, Munich, Germany; Library Project Collection, Photo Ireland, Dublin, Ireland; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Residencies
2020-2021 The Queer Hut, Cambridgeshire
2019 Cambridge Artworks, Cambridge
2015 De Grote Enk, Arnhem, Netherlands
2010 Hornsey Town Hall, London
Awards
2021 LGBTQ+ Encompass Network, Cambridge, Open Short Stories, First Prize
2019 Winner Cambridge Artworks Residency, Cambridge
2019 Highly Commended Finalist, Cornish Family Prize for Art and Design Publishing, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
2013 Runner-up Best Mixed Anthology, Saboteur Awards
2011 First Prize, London Photographic Association Still Life 5
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