The Autumn Auction 2020

Included in the Columbia Threadneedle Prize Exhibition in 2018, Le Confluence depicts a small apartment in Lyon, France where the artist stayed briefly. It is part of an ongoing series of works which depict semi-social spaces and the objects within them. Hotel rooms, class rooms, thoroughfares, train stations and short lease apartments are rendered still and silent, belying the transitory and chaotic nature of their purpose.

Richard Baker’s painting practice is an investigation into the hidden human histories behind seemingly insignificant objects. Often ignored, they bear witness to sensuous activity, be it remembered, lived, forgotten, or mythologised. In these modestly scaled works, the depicted objects are presented dislocated and appear as unadorned formal arrangements in a painterly restaging of the interrelationship of material, image, object and time.

Accolades

Awards: The Hix Award 2019 (Winner). The London Contemporary Art Prize 2019 (Runner Up). The Neo Art Prize 2019 (Shortlisted). The John Moores Painting Prize 2018 (Exhibitor). The Columbia Threadneedle Prize (Exhibitor). The Lynn Painter-Stainer’s Prize 2018 (Exhibitor). The Marmite Prize for Painting 2016 (Shortlisted). Divided We Fall Print Commission 2012 (Winner). The Gascoigne Painting Prize 2002 (Winner)

Work held in the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting