Details:
① Artwork:
Sharing a bed
In this new body of work, the artist delves into complex themes surrounding the human body, interpersonal relationships, and intricate power dynamics along the gender spectrum. Traditionally known for working at a large scale, these more intimate works invite viewers into lovers’ private, domestic scenes. The bed frequently serves as a stage where the artist replays visceral emotions—ranging from detachment and loneliness to lust and love—that surface as relationships grow. Here, Baker continues to explore identity formation, emphasizing how individuals shape and reshape themselves through interactions with others.
Drawing on both the legacy of Abstract Expressionism and figurative painting, Lily Alice 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.
Specs:
③ Artist:
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.
Lily Alice Baker was born in 1998 in Newcastle, UK, and currently lives in London, UK. She completed her Foundation Diploma in Fine Art at Sussex Coast College in Hastings, UK (2018) and her BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University in London, UK (2021).
Baker mounted a recent solo exhibition at COL Gallery in San Francisco, CA (2023).
She has been featured in group exhibitions at Naranjo 141 in Mexico City, Mexico (2023); Young Soy Gallery in Zurich, Switzerland (2023); and Lighthouse Gallery in London, UK (2022), among others.
