Richard Baker, Eastbound, 2018. Oil on canvas, 45 x 60 inches.


Skidmore Contemporary Art

Is delighted to present


Richard Baker

Luminosity

Paintings

February 9 – March 16

Opening reception for the artist: Saturday, February 9

4–6pm





Richard Baker, La Quinta Cove, 2018. Oil on canvas, 24 x 32 inches.

The paintings in Richard Baker’s third one-person exhibition at Skidmore Contemporary Art explore the distinctive figurative subject matter for which his work is known and reveal a new emphasis — the luminous landscape of the California desert.


About his work, Baker has written:

“My paintings explore the effect of light and it's absence on scenery, objects and figures. Though representational, the paintings also have abstract qualities. The paintings have more to do with my eye than my psyche and are a celebration of the sensual pleasure of light and color.”




Richard Baker, Mountain Course, 2018. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.

Baker’s desert includes not just vast open vistas of land and sky, dramatic weather, and empty roads leading to the horizon, but the cultivated landscapes of Palm Springs and ‘All Other Desert Cities.’ This desert includes the manicured green plains of golf courses, storm clouds over freeway overpasses, and colorfully attired spectators at tennis matches.


Concurrent with his greater emphasis on landscape, Baker’s new work has grown dramatically in physical size. Of the sixteen works in the exhibition, most are of a scale in which the viewer literally becomes physically immersed in the imagery, brushstrokes, and color.


Richard Baker, Deuce!, 2017. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.


Richard Baker, Cove View, 2018. Oil on canvas, 45 x 60 inches.


Accompanying “Luminosity” is a full-color exhibition brochure. The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, March 16. Skidmore Contemporary Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9am–5pm.