Anthony Baker
Born in Winnipeg, Tony Baker lived for many years in Edmonton, where he earned a BFA from the University of Alberta in 1996. He now makes his home in Toronto, and most recently, Boston.
His playful style is reminiscent of the spontaneity of young children’s art, with a raw intensity and a refusal of the constraints of traditional perspective or natural colour selection. As a child, Tony Baker was fascinated by diagrams of the human body, computer circuitry, engines and industrial complexes, and he continues to return to his childhood roots. Baker has called this combination of complex figurative and abstract characters and symbols “abstract escapism”. Using acrylics and oil pastels on large-scale Masonite boards, Baker creates his own immersive world of characters inspired by the comic books, science fiction, fables and myths of his childhood. These aliens, robots, and super-heroes dwell on planets wracked by war. This sprawling fantasy universe is known as The Expanse, and remains an on-going source of inspiration and story-lines for his work. The Expanse has also expanded – to include drawings, text and a soundtrack.
He has described his artistic process as a struggle between the opposing forces of the control exerted by his modernist art training, and spontaneous mark-making and “general chaos”.
He has exhibited across Canada, while still maintaining a presence in the Front Gallery in Edmonton. His work has also appeared at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Harcourt House and Latitude 53.
His playful style is reminiscent of the spontaneity of young children’s art, with a raw intensity and a refusal of the constraints of traditional perspective or natural colour selection. As a child, Tony Baker was fascinated by diagrams of the human body, computer circuitry, engines and industrial complexes, and he continues to return to his childhood roots. Baker has called this combination of complex figurative and abstract characters and symbols “abstract escapism”. Using acrylics and oil pastels on large-scale Masonite boards, Baker creates his own immersive world of characters inspired by the comic books, science fiction, fables and myths of his childhood. These aliens, robots, and super-heroes dwell on planets wracked by war. This sprawling fantasy universe is known as The Expanse, and remains an on-going source of inspiration and story-lines for his work. The Expanse has also expanded – to include drawings, text and a soundtrack.
He has described his artistic process as a struggle between the opposing forces of the control exerted by his modernist art training, and spontaneous mark-making and “general chaos”.
He has exhibited across Canada, while still maintaining a presence in the Front Gallery in Edmonton. His work has also appeared at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Harcourt House and Latitude 53.