YouTube artist makes £1.7m on first night

Charming prints: I Like You Fantastically Well But For All The Wrong Reasons
12 April 2012

An artist who funds his own shows and promotes himself on YouTube sold £1.75million of art on the opening night of his new exhibition.

"Charming" Baker, 47, spent most of his career as a commercial artist - having started work as a road digger before exhibiting his paintings for the first time five years ago.

But he quickly won the support of collectors from Frank Cohen, dubbed the Saatchi of the North, to Damien Hirst, who described his work as "great".

Rock stars Noel Gallagher and Ronnie Wood were among the guests at the opening of his new show in Covent Garden and it was a sell-out even before the show of sculptures, paintings and prints opened to the public.

Baker, who lives in Lewisham with his wife, Tanya, a French teacher, and their five children, said it did not mean that everyone could do as he had done without galleries and dealers: "But if I've proved anything, it's you can find your own path."

He said he had been "living quietly" until mounting his first pop-up show at the Truman Brewery in east London in 2007. Pat Magnarella, manager of rock giants Green Day, took him under his wing after seeing those works and encouraged him to show in New York last year.

He has been invited to return to America next year to show at Lever House where previous exhibitions have showcased Jeff Koons and Hirst.

But he wanted to show on home turf - and without all the costs incurred by shipping. The money did not matter to him, he said, but the freedom did. "I don't need a Maserati. But it's been so liberating as an artist to say, just let me get the work done," he said. However, after his latest success he is planning to buy a new kitchen.

Baker acquired his "Charming" nickname by being polite when he worked as a labourer before studying at St Martin's art college.

Charming Baker is at the Mercer Street Studios in Covent Garden until July 31.

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