For Lily Alice Baker, a local pub serves as a melting pot where disparate social groups—fueled by diminished inhibitions and a shared desire to let off steam—come together in bacchanalian scenes where the possibility of violence also lurks. Here, cultural identity markers dissolve into each other: Football shirts find company next to campy high-heeled boots, while stoics staring at TV screens share space with revelers jumping into each other’s arms. Drawing on both the legacy of Abstract Expressionism and figurative painting, Baker’s work explores her own identity in a world that primarily caters to masculinity by navigating spaces that traditionally aren’t safe havens for women and queer people. In her paintings, vulnerable or macho figures emit telling characteristics—a slumped shoulder, a raised brow—and blend via bold painterly gestures. While emerging from their seedy dreamscapes, Baker’s glowing, anthropomorphic figures hint at the possibility of a place where fluid notions of gender might thrive.