Paul Cocksedge: Reflections – A Sculptural Journey Through Light, Mass, and Materiality at Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Ladbroke Hall
Carpenters Workshop Gallery has long been a beacon of innovation in the worlds of collectable design and contemporary art. Known for championing interdisciplinary creatives who straddle the boundaries of function and form, the gallery has cultivated an international reputation for bold, thought-provoking exhibitions. With locations in London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles, Carpenters Workshop Gallery is recognised for presenting limited-edition pieces that challenge design conventions while celebrating material exploration and artisanal excellence.
In London, the gallery’s spectacular Ladbroke Hall location, a restored Edwardian landmark in Notting Hill, has quickly become a vital cultural destination. This summer, the gallery presents one of its most anticipated shows to date: Paul Cocksedge: Reflections, on view from 22 May to 30 August 2025. This deeply personal and technically masterful exhibition offers a retrospective glance at the celebrated British designer’s practice, while introducing exciting new works that continue to push the boundaries of how we perceive light, form, and reflection.
A Visionary in Contemporary Design: Paul Cocksedge
Paul Cocksedge is one of Britain’s most distinctive voices in contemporary design. Since co-founding Paul Cocksedge Studio in 2004 with Joana Pinho, Cocksedge has become synonymous with ambitious, often gravity-defying work that blends technology, narrative, and material experimentation. His installations and furniture designs are regularly featured in international institutions, private collections, and public spaces, gaining acclaim for their imaginative use of physics and their poetic visual appeal.
Reflections at Carpenters Workshop Gallery London traces over a decade of Cocksedge’s creative journey, from early sculptural works to recent explorations in glass and mirror, presenting pieces that are as intellectually rigorous as they are sensorially engaging. It’s a showcase not just of beautiful objects, but of a designer who constantly revisits and reshapes the way we experience the physical world.
Poised (2013): The Illusion of Weightlessness
One of the most striking pieces in the exhibition is Poised, created in 2013 but exhibited in a gallery setting for the first time. This steel sculpture, weighing nearly half a ton, appears impossibly light, as if a simple breath might cause it to tip. It’s a study in contradiction: solid yet ephemeral, calculated yet spontaneous. Here, Cocksedge’s grasp of equilibrium and mass becomes clear, as does his ability to imbue raw industrial material with a startling elegance.
By manipulating balance and perceived fragility, Cocksedge invites viewers to engage not just with the object, but with the physics that shape it. Poised serves as a powerful opening statement in the exhibition – a metaphorical and literal balancing act that defines the emotional core of his work.
Excavation Sliced Core Table (2017): Memory, Space, and Urban Realities
Created during a moment of upheaval, the Excavation Sliced Core Table represents a turning point in Cocksedge’s practice. When faced with eviction from his London studio to make way for luxury apartments, the designer responded by drilling into the very foundation of his creative space. From the studio’s concrete floor, he extracted hundreds of cylindrical cores – remnants of time and place – which he later embedded into furniture pieces.
In this table, the rugged textures of brick and concrete are juxtaposed against the transparency of glass, forming a tactile and symbolic contrast between impermanence and resilience. As London’s creative spaces continue to vanish under the pressure of gentrification, the work stands as both protest and preservation. It speaks to the challenges faced by designers and artists in urban centres, forced to constantly negotiate space, community, and identity.
Squeeze Series (2024–): Alchemical Reflections
Perhaps the most emotionally resonant series in Reflections is Squeeze, a body of work begun in 2024 that delves into humanity’s primordial relationship with reflection. In these pieces, Cocksedge begins with soft, voluminous forms that he “squeezes” down into two-dimensional mirrors. The transformation is both physical and symbolic – soft curves are compressed into surfaces that not only reflect the viewer, but also the invisible touch that shaped them.
“There’s an intimacy in the way these forms come together,” says Cocksedge. “I see them almost like a parent and child—soft, protective, and connected.” This emotional layering is palpable. Though made of cold reflective material, the works seem to carry a tactile warmth, echoing themes of closeness, protection, and transformation.
The process of creating a mirror – an alchemical mix of liquids that form a flawless reflective layer – fascinates Cocksedge, who sees it as a metaphor for the elusive nature of self-perception and interaction. The mirrors feel alive, capturing movement, space, and light in constantly shifting compositions.
Slump Series (2025): The Liquid Language of Glass
The final segment of the Reflections exhibition presents new additions to the Slump series, a body of work that fuses industrial manufacturing techniques with fluid visual language. Drawing on years of experience visiting factories and observing processes, Cocksedge shapes heated glass sheets over concrete, stone, wood, and metal forms. The result is a striking combination of structural force and liquid grace.
The Slump Bubble Table, with its steel base viewed through undulating glass, creates the impression of a metallic object submerged underwater. Meanwhile, the Slump Rock Drop Coffee Tables, crafted from stone and iridescent glass, evoke the serenity of a river flowing over rock – a meditative moment frozen in time.
These works are not just technically complex; they are emotionally immersive, inviting us to reflect (both literally and figuratively) on the nature of transformation, weight, and visual perception.
A Monograph and a Moment of Reflection
Coinciding with the exhibition is the release of a new monograph on Paul Cocksedge, published by Phaidon. The book offers further insight into the designer’s evolving practice, charting his career across disciplines and continents. Much like the exhibition, it positions Cocksedge as a storyteller whose materials speak volumes – whether through the fragility of glass, the solidity of steel, or the fleeting shimmer of a mirrored surface.
Reflections at Carpenters Workshop Gallery’s Ladbroke Hall is more than a survey of design; it’s a powerful testament to the potential of creative thinking to transform the world around us. Through careful calibration and a deep understanding of form, Paul Cocksedge renders heavy materials weightless, makes the invisible tangible, and turns the familiar into something utterly new.
Visit the Exhibition
Paul Cocksedge: Reflections
22 May – 30 August 2025
Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Ladbroke Hall
79 Barlby Road, London W10 6AZ
