Stephanie Walz Baker (American, 20th century), "Last Sandbank," 2021, oil on canvas, signed verso and top of stretcher bar, canvas (unframed): 48"h x 62"w. Exhibition: The de Young Open 2023, group show, Sept 2023-Jan 2024, de Young Museum, SF, CA Artist bio: Stephanie Walz Baker grew up in West Los Angeles underneath tall palm trees next to seedy Hollywood. Her mother, an artist, struggled as a single mother. Often alone and self-sufficient, Walz Baker visited a liminal space of enchanting detachment, the decaying movie backlots of Twentieth Century Fox. The acres of abandoned heads, feet, and architectural objects are a seminal orientation for the artist situating the location of California as the geography of place in her fantastical artwork. After moving to San Francisco, Walz Baker met in a classroom the prominent member of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, Joan Brown (1938-1990). Her encouragement to create large oil paintings, a directive Walz Baker continues in Last Sandbank, 2021. Exhibited at The de Young Open, 2023, (Sept. 30, 2023-Jan. 7, 2024), de Young Museum, San Francisco. The painting is a cross section of distracted people who have reached the last sandbank in ocean waters. Their arrival raises entangled questions of personal survival, social detachment, ageism, gender stereotype, and environmental impact. The artist regards her painting practice as having an attribute of repair work activity as the potential to engender conversation and focus on current social issues. Stephanie Walz Baker currently lives and works on the island of Alameda, California, after earning the Master of Fine arts, Studio Arts, and Master of Arts, History and Theory of Contemporary Art at the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California.

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