Painter
BIO
Lily Alice Baker is a painter, living in South East London and a recent graduate of Goldsmiths University. Her work is based in an intuitive gestural style anchored to the human figure, with clear inspiration drawn from the works of the original Abstract Expressionist movement. Baker’s work penetrates the existing ‘boys-only club' that clouds large-scale abstract painting, instead, exploring a spectral approach to gender and her own femininity in the physical process and subject matter.
Her work is an exploration into the subordination of the female form as an object, particularly fascinated by the body’s language, indulging in the romanticism of euphoric feeling whilst exposing the seediness of what goes on in the shadows.
More than ever, in this unpredictable and isolating time, her practice has become instilled with notions of longing, for the normalcy of human connection. Her most recent work has developed into a reevaluation of the previously naturalised environment of the pub, becoming poignantly linked to the theatrical exaggeration and fantasy of works by artists such as Rubens or Fragonard.
The reintroduction to the experience of a crowded pub becomes an amalgamation of memory and expectation. This allows for an exploration into the formulation of a site-specific experience of gender. Rooted in spontaneous gesture and abstract figuration, the work aims to be a celebration of the abject body. The visceral oil painting acts as a physical rejection of the discourse of the hermetically sealed female body. Her work questions the preconceived machismo of the pub, examining and exaggerating sexual and gender tensions that the ritualism of the pub scene permits. Recently her work has explored her own relationship with her father, the difficulties that addiction brings a family, injected with the innocence and naivety of a child’s perspective on a complicated issue.
Education
Shows
2017-18
Sussex Coast College
2018-2021
Goldsmiths University
2023
2022
2021
2021
2019
2018
Foundation Diploma in Fine Art | Sussex Coast College | Hastings
BA Honors Fine Art | Goldsmiths College | London
Solo Exhibition | Mickys Art | Melbourne (Upcoming)
'In gratitude for all the times we start over' Flatland Projects| Bexhill on Sea
'Permanent Temporary' The Bottle Factory | Peckham
Emerging Artists Group Show, Lighthouse Gallery
StArt Galleries Group Show, Black Swan Studios
Goldsmiths Degree Show, St James' Church | New Cross
Group Show, Safehouse 1 and 2 | Peckham
Rising Talent, Hastings Art Forum