"Painting allows me to linger, the paint slipping into its own form of renewal, and I rely quite heavily on this act of slipping. I keep returning to this notion that time is unrepeatable but it is also circular. I hope that the works sit in that in-between space of feeling familiar but just outside of our grasp, where perhaps you recognise the image more than you see it".
Megan Baker investigates Old Master paintings, reflecting on the circularity of art history by drawing inspiration from artists such as Rubens, Titian, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Revisiting these influences through a contemporary lens, Baker’s lyrical abstractions transform into dream-like landscapes. Exploring moments of stillness within nature, the artist reflects on our contained state as human beings, while evoking a quiet sense of comfort in solitude.
Unfolding through layers of impasto, Baker’s oil paintings suggest an ever-changing state of being, where fragmented and gestural figures are continually interrupted by the immediacy and texture of the paint itself. Rooted in the physicality of the medium, Baker’s practice is centred on the way time can be experienced through painting. She uses paint as a means to expand and extend time, in a world where everyday encounters often feel instant and condensed. In turn, the perception of time shifts and evolves as one is drawn into the surface, absorbed in the search for the next hidden detail.
Memory, and the fluid way in which we remember, is another key concern for the artist. Echoing the soft hills and faint glow of British landscapes, the rose pinks and deep greens that permeate Baker’s canvases carry a sense of the familiar - recognisable even if never truly seen. The atmosphere the artist conjures is subjective, each viewer uniquely perceiving a world while lost in private contemplation. Baker puts us in touch with someplace else, somewhere outside our immediate field of vision, nurturing an idealised and romantic perception of the natural scenes we hold in memory.
Multiple dualities collide in Baker’s practice: abstraction and figuration, the real and the imagined, the hidden and the found all coexist across the pictorial surface. Paint shifts back and forth, always located in this in-between state where nothing is fixed. This plurality is reflective of Baker’s wide array of influences, spanning Old Masters, literature, and cinematography - as well as her own poetry, which she writes to accompany and inform her work, further deepening the layered narratives within her paintings.
Born in the UK (1996), Baker graduated from the prominent school Central Saint Martins in 2018, when she received the Kate Barton Painting Award and the Cass Art Prize. Baker has been shortlisted for the Clyde and Co Art Award and also came runner up at the Hix Art Award, 2019. Between 2022 and 2023, the artist was exhibited at ‘Eye of the Collector' art fair in collaboration with Christies, and was part of multiple national and international group shows. Following the success of Baker’s first solo show in September 2022, GJG held another solo in October 2023. In 2024, Baker was exhibited at VOLTA Basel, participated in a duo booth at Women in Art Fair and had a duo show with Gillian Jason Gallery. In 2025, Baker has exhibited internationally in Dubai (GJG in collaboration with A+ Art Consultancy), New York (IRL Gallery), and Singapore (GJG in collaboration with Art Works), and in a group booth at Contemporary Istanbul.
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This Too Will Be Lost, Like a Kiss Blown in the Breeze
Megan Baker 26 Jun - 26 Jul 2025Megan Baker investigates Old Master paintings, reflecting on the circularity of art history by revisiting them through a contemporary lens. In this body of work, the artist draws specific inspiration...Read more -
The Sway of Form
15 May - 21 Jun 2025Each work draws from a distinct inspiration - the rhythm of dance, the fluidity of fashion, the emotional depths of personal experience, or the echoes of the Old Masters -...Read more -
Unbound Territories
Dubai 10 - 30 Apr 2025Within the rapidly growing globalisation of the art market, 'Unbound Territories' stands as a powerful testament to the creative force of women across generations, geographies, and media. Held at Foundry...Read more -
Time is Always New
Megan Baker & Eleanor Johnson 3 Oct - 16 Nov 2024In ‘Time is Always New’, Megan Baker and Eleanor Johnson explore Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ (circa 8 AD), a latin narrative poem that constitutes one of the most important works of classical literature in history. The poem chronicles a vast array of myths and legends, primarily focusing on the theme of transformation or ‘metamorphosis’. Baker and Johnson investigate specific myths and use them as a jumping-off point for the exploration of the very concept of change.Read more
While the two artists differ in their conceptual and aesthetic approach to the theme, both assign particular importance to the parallelism between humans and nature when it comes to transformation. -
I See You in the Clouds, You Move with the Wind
Megan Baker 5 Oct - 11 Nov 2023In ‘I See You in the Clouds, You Move with the Wind’, Baker looks back on the Old Masters. Specifically, the artist uses Titian’s ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ (1520-23) as a...Read more -
Beyond Figuration: Then and Now
Group Exhibition 4 May - 3 Jun 2023The canon of art history often refers to the abandonment of imitative practices as having roots in the Romantic period. This period saw the initial disruptions of representation over imagination....Read more -
Where The Ground Meets the Sky
Megan Baker 8 Sep - 1 Oct 2022'Where the Ground Meets the Sky' explores moments of stillness within nature, capturing a feeling of comfort in solitude where the vastness of landscape makes us conscious of our contained...Read more
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Contemporary Istanbul 2025
Istanbul, Turkey 24 - 28 Sep 2025We’re delighted to announce that GJG will be exhibiting at the 20th edition of Contemporary Istanbul , taking place from 24 to 28 September 2025...Read more -
LAPADA 2024
London, United Kingdom 22 - 27 Oct 2024We are excited to announce our curated booth at LAPADA, located at Stand C1. We will be showcasing a selection of works from four exceptional...Read more -
VOLTA 2024
Basel, Switzerland 10 - 16 Jun 2024GJG's stand has a specific focus on the linearity of art history, presenting a set of artists that effectively revisit a variety of artistic currents....Read more