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Blake Baxter
Blake Baxter is best known for reductive monochromatic paintings incorporating aggregates such as sand and cement. His work is optical- focusing on light and space as a way to affect the gaze of the viewer. Often working with black acrylic washes and many dense layers of sand, he creates a reflection and movement that changes under different lighting conditions. This quality makes this work ever changing with direct viewing imperative. Even though the medium is static and minimalist, the darkest areas still glimmer.
“My pieces are constructed with minimal materials. I follow repeatable processes of sequenced steps that yield variation despite my efforts to minimize the same. The result is a loosely structured communication, which, when met by perception, seeks to establish form. One might see a single piece recreated over and over, or individual pieces grouped by common values, or wholly unique objects defined by their relative distances from each other in time and space. As such, these are exercises in the interpretative power of consciousness, providing viewers a pathway towards separation from the mundane through a mediated process of observation.”
Baxter was born in Los Angeles and attended UCLA School of Arts and Architecture before completing his BA in Fine Art at UC Santa Cruz. He has exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, Seattle, Buffalo, and Palm Springs; and was an exhibiting member of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition. His work has been featured on EMS ArtScene; in Palm Springs Life and ART Patron magazines; and is in the permanent collection at the Palm Springs Art Museum, as well as numerous, notable private collections. He lives and works today in Joshua Tree, CA.
C/V
Born in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in Joshua Tree, CA
Education
BA, Fine Art, 1989, University of California, Santa Cruz
Solo Exhibitions
2021 "Perception and Observation", Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2019 "Points in Time", Eleven Twenty Projects, Buffalo, NY
2018 “New Works", Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA
2018 "Enumeration", Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Small Works, Palm Springs, CA
2018 Blake Baxter at D'Amour Concept, Palm Springs, CA
2018 "Form and Void", JTAG, Joshua Tree, CA
2013 "Vanishing Point", Taverner & Fricke, Los Angeles, CA
2011 "Crazy Horse", Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Group Exhibitions
2021 "Connections", BoxoPROJECTS, Joshua Tree, CA
2020 "Daylight Savings Time: Artists Respond to Desert Light”, Tenderfoot Projects, Yucca Valley, CA
2020 Group Show, Molteni&C|Dada, West Hollywood, CA
2020 The Gillman Residence, Modernism Week, Palm Springs, CA
2019 "All Summer All Stars", Asher Grey Gallery, Venice, CA
2019 "30 x 30: 30 Years of Public Art in Palm Springs”
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
2019 "The O.G.Show", JTAG, Joshua Tree, CA
2019 "ARTrageous Redux", Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert, CA
2019 "Absolutely Abstract", Yucca Valley Arts Center, Yucca Valley, CA
2019 "Mojave Made", The Hangar Galleries, Santa Monica, CA
2018 "Layering Reality", BoxoPROJECTS, Joshua Tree, CA
2017 Collective Show, Gallery 62, Joshua Tree, CA
2017 Summer Artists Review, JTAG, Joshua Tree, CA
2017 "Eyes of March", JTAG, Joshua Tree, CA
2012 "The Patter of Tiny Brains", 323 Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Fall Show, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY
2010 "INSIGHT", Triomph, Brooklyn, NY
2009 Summer Show, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY
2009 Spring Show, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY
2008 Summer Show, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY
2008 Spring Show, BWAC, Brooklyn, NY
Art Fairs
2018 Art Palm Springs, BoxoPROJECTS, Palm Springs, CA
Benefit Auctions
2018 Fulcrum Arts Emerge, Pasadena, CA
Press/Publications
2019 Swenson, Eric Minh, "Blake Baxter: Aggregate", EMSArtScene
2018 Jacobson, Tienlyn, "Highway to High Art", Palm Springs Life
2018 Kroger, Grove, "Staring Into the Void", ARTPatron
2009 Studio Visit, Winter Edition. Juror: Steven Zevitas
2009 Studio Visit, Spring edition. Juror: Michael Klein
Permanent Collections
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA