Artist Statement

With a focus on language and its rhythms, Toby Kidd uses sounds, images, objects, and performance, searching for meaning in a high-capitalist dystopia of hustle culture, ecological collapse, and dopamine addiction.

Bio

After initially training in painting and animation at Wolverhampton School of Art, his public output was concentrated in the form of song. Notable collaborations include performances with members of Primal Scream and Lambchop, as well as appearances at the Barbican Centre and live on BBC Radio 4's culture show Loose Ends with Clive Anderson.

In 2020 he developed his Utopian Pop Songs methodology at the Royal College of Art which takes influence from the social theories of Jurgen Habermas alongside Philosopher Johnny Golding's concepts of Entanglement and Encounter.

In 2022 his video artwork Blossom was included in the show Extrospection at Pi Artworks curated by David Thorp, an exhibition that traced a socio-political lineage in conceptual art practices, placing Toby as an emerging voice alongside John Latham, Anne Tallentire, Cally Spooner, Fiona Banner and Barry Flannagan.

Recent work includes site-specific interventions as part of Pragmata Collective using the land to make sculptures exploring ideas of rewilding and our human connection to the land, in 2024 Pragmata Collective installed 10 meadowing artworks in the grounds of Antony Gormley’s High House in Norfolk.

He hosts Public Art & the Economics of Imagination, a podcast with King’s College London as part of Art Activa research lab. 

CV

Royal College of Art: Contemporary Art Practice Public Sphere (2020)

2024 Pragmata Summer Show 2024, Pragmata Gallery, London, England.
2024 High House Residency, Norfolk, England.  
2024 Speculative Land(e)scapes, Silian Gallery, London, England.
2024 Gitanjali, Cafe Oto, London, England. 
2023 Supercommunity, Foundation World, online.
2023 The Guest House, Selina Space, curated by Dee Sada, London, England. 
2023 Jeffrey Bligh Meets David Thorp Once Again, curated by Jo Melvin, Filet Space, London, England. 
2023 My First Flatpack Monument Pragmata Sculpture Garden. Curated by Pragmata Collective. Artists included Nao Matsunaga, Emma Edmondson, Kaori Homma, Xenia Busalova, Adele Lazzeri, Malgorzata Lisiecka.  
2022 Art They Chant is A Teddington Plant, Metworks London. Curated by Stella Toonen.
2022 TASC at Hand, Muse Gallery London. Curated by Kieran Cook.
2022 RCA 2020 at the OXO Bargehouse Gallery. Curated by Kitmapper. 
2022 Pragmata Gallery Performance Event, Pragmata Gallery London, curated by Pragmata Collective.
2022 THIS IS at Tottenham Hale International Studios. Artist-led.
2021 Open Fragment, online platform. Curated by PRAGMATA Collective.
2021 Extrospection at Pi Artworks, London. Curated by David Thorp. Artists: Fiona Banner, Barry Flanagan, John Latham, Cally Spooner, Anne Tallentire.
2021 Songs Iterations Project,  Instagram Live and Youtube.
2021 Person and the Otherness of Nature, online platform. Curated by PRAGMATA Collective.
2020 Rhythm&Frames, Twitch performance. Curated by Louise Gholam.
2020 Acousma, NoSpace Gallery China, online. Curated by Tian Xie and Ting Deng.
2020 Musicality in Grassroots Politics, with Partisan Social Club and Allan Struthers and Tim Cape, Coventry Biennial.
2020 Contemporary Arts Practice, RCA2020 graduate show, online.
2020 Songs of Futures, RCA2020, online.
2020 Camaradas, Menier Gallery, organized by the British Council and the Mexican Embassy in the UK, London. With Paola Estrella.
2020 Mal(e)Fe+asance, Ugly Duck, London.
2020 The Museum Without A Public, online seminar and performance w/ Pil Kollectiv, moderated by Richard Parry and Shama Khanna. In collaboration with Rieko Whitfield and Alessandro Moroni.
2020 Sound and Vision Festival, Royal Academy of Music, London. Comperred by Paul Morley. In collaboration with Zhenyan Li.
2020 302 Redirect, ICA News and Online Exhibition.
2019 Art Machine w/ PRAGMATA Collective, Graphik Gallery London.
2019 Research As Work, Hockney Gallery London. Curated by Vinona Joneska.
2019 Capped Out, Cookie Factory London.
2019 Growing Sculptures, Bastioni Association exhibition. Live introduction with Giuliano Serafini. W/ PRAGMATA Collective.
2019 Growing Sculptures, Bastioni Association Residency, Florence Italy. W/ PRAGMATA Collective.
2019 Your Utopia, Wandsworth Arts Fringe, Battersea Park. In collaboration with Hanxuan Sophie Jiang.
2019 Hyjacking The Pop Song, Beaconsfield London
2019 On Being Together, Partisan Social Club w/ Sean Griffiths, Beaconsfield London.
2018 Odretech, Lambeth Fire Station London. Curated by Joseph Kohlmaier and Muzarq collective
2018 A Connection Is Made, Gallery 46 London. Artists: Adele Lazzeri, Adam Oczkowicz, Ben Cain, Bethan Hughes, Hamer Faramazi, Peter Fillingham, Deej  Fabyc, Richard Ducker.
2017  Places Outside The Main Thing... Galeria Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb. W/ Nicole Hewitt, Ben Cain, Vida Guzm.