From carefully crafted domestic sculptures to monumental public artworks, Alex Chinneck’s projects playfully disrupt the world around us. Best known for his architectural installations, Chinneck has made buildings melt, hover, bend and unzip. The artist takes particular pleasure in introducing sculptural elasticity to typically inflexible forms, transcending their material nature. 

Based in the UK and working internationally, Chinneck’s portfolio includes flagship public installations for London Design Festival and Milan Design Week. His work is exceptional in quality and playful in personality, attracting widespread interest. 

A passionate collector of antique furniture and folk art, Chinneck’s contemporary art practice combines traditional crafts with innovative architectural and industrial processes to push past old boundaries.   

Completed artworks to date include sliding the brick façade from a three-storey property in Margate; constructing a full-size melting house from 7,500 wax bricks; creating the impression that a stone building on London’s Covent Garden Piazza was floating in mid-air; inverting a 37-metre electricity pylon to stand on its very tip; and unzipping the walls, floors and façade of a factory in Milan.

The genesis of the artist’s public projects stems from smaller scale studies and sculptures, to which he has since returned. These indoor pieces possess the same whimsical and widely accessible qualities as their outdoor counterparts, while displaying exquisite craftsmanship. Chinneck’s hand carved knotted Ash broom was selected from almost 10,000 entries as winner of the 2018 Liberty Open Call. Whatever their scale or setting, Alex Chinneck’s artworks respond to their environment, challenging expectations and making the world seem momentarily magical. Temporary projects, lasting less than one month, have received more than one million visitors and have been listed among the UK’s annual cultural highlights.  

Alex Chinneck is a graduate of Chelsea College of Art and a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. He lives and works in Kent, UK.