Local Economy Art: Francis Baker on Beauty and the Anthropocene

Francis Baker at Local Economy in Oakland

On Thursday, July 16, Local Economy opens up the conversation around the work currently hanging on its walls. Francis Baker will be there from 6:00 to 7:30 pm to talk about his art, his process, and the everyday materials that shape these images.

The shop has the kind of close, neighborhood feel that makes this sort of event work. You can stand near the pieces, look slowly, and hear directly from the artist without the stiffness of a formal gallery talk.

Baker uses plastic fragments, found objects, sun, heat, and light sensitive paper to make images without a camera. The work comes from recent series including Chasing Storms, My Plastic Life, and flowers for the Anthropocene. The results sit somewhere between landscape, record, and quiet warning.

This is a good stop for anyone who likes art with a clear sense of place and consequence. It is also a chance to think about waste, beauty, and the marks people leave behind, all through materials we usually pass by without a second look.

Local Economy is in Oakland. The talk runs from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.

If you’ve been into the shop in recent weeks, you’ve seen Francis Baker’s work on our walls. Baker is showing a selection of his art from the last several years, including work from Chasing Storms, My Plastic Life, and flowers for the Anthropocene. These pieces are created through camera-less photographic techniques in which plastic fragments and found materials are arranged directly onto light-sensitive paper and exposed to the sun. The resulting images function both as landscape and evidence, traces of consumption transformed through light, heat, and time.
Come learn more about Baker’s practice and how his use of everyday materials investigates the human impact on the environment.