ADAM BAKER: VELVET HOURS
In many ways, British artist Adam Baker's debut exhibition at BEERS London is about searching for meaning through moments of intimacy. These imagined snapshots of queer life and love depict different ways in which we pursue meaning and purpose in our lives, through hedonistic pursuits or the quiet closeness of reading a book, Baker states his paintings are a form of therapy, bridging the gap between his goals as an artist, and those of a young gay man living in the big bustling city of London.
Queerness, caution, celebration. These paintings are rife with themes that straddle a fine line between quietness and excess. They draw upon a broad visual language - whether reminiscent of the lyrical prose scenes of the recently deceased author Edmund White; or tropes found in film of dimly lit bars or those soul-aching post-coital and pre-meaning moments where one finds himself caught in a solitude whirlwind of internal affect - these paintings seem to tap into a sense of empathy and acquiescence inside each of us. If Oscar Wilde said that every painting is a portrait of the artist himself, then these archetypes show Baker's tender ability to tap into real and relatable human emotion.
But further, as paintings, their technical breakthroughs see Baker as a young artist filled with life, zeal, and promise. His desire to push beyond and move past is evidenced in the complexity of arranged chaos. There's a sort of smoky haze that permeates these paintings; a blurred edge and muted colour bears as much subliminal messaging as the images themselves tell a story of past lives. Most of all, what's exciting is to see a bold new voice in queer painting pronounce himself with such a prominent display.
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ADAM BAKER (b. 1991, Ipswich, UK) currently lives and works in London. Baker completed his studies at the Wimbledon College of Art in 2015. Prior to this he studied at Parsons Paris, The New School 2011.
Solo exhibitions include: Passing Through The Soft Storm, Shlomer Haus Gallery, San Francisco (2024).
Group exhibitions include: Family & Friends, BEERS London (2023); Enigmas of Identity, Edji Gallery, Brussels (2023); Queer Up, Gone Rogue, ME London (2022); Come Out and Play, BEERS London (2022); Further from Heaven, Guise collective, London, (2019); Let Us In: Together, Clichy Paris (2019) and; QUEER ART(ists) NOW, Archive Gallery, Rose Lipman Building (2018).
Residencies include: SPACE Patrons & Friends (London) in 2018/19 and; Can7 (Formentera, Spain) in 2019.
