Just across from the afternoon swimmers in the freezing water of the Bay stands COL Gallery. Tucked into the waterfront space below San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square, this female-owned and centered gallery is an intimate, inviting space. Lily Alice Baker’s current collection on display, “Risk of Delight,” is her second at the gallery.
Toggling between the public and the domestic, Baker paints the movement of female bodies in various vague settings — they are imprecise yet undeniably familiar. Faint yellow lines in a triangular pattern manifest the background of “Migraine” (2025) with the warm glow of a nightstand lamp. Bright purples and oranges evoke bedsheets, while the green outline of a foot is reminiscent of the self-reflection one has after a night of fuzzily recalled adventure.
Her figures, free of truly distinctive gendered symbols, play with sexuality and human dynamics through bodily movement. In “The Waitress” (2025), a pair of purple breasts hang from a figure who leans flirtatiously toward her momentary partner at the pub. Her hand, extended toward the left of the painting, pours another glass of wine. Baker’s work showcases how human connection and inhibitions seem to go hand-in-hand.
“Miss” (2025), too, is a portrait of heterosexual connection in what is presumably a bar or public setting. A male figure, matching the bright blue of the painting’s singular wine glass, cradles a woman who cranes her neck up toward him. Reflected in her warm-toned skin and sweater is the azure of the beverage; performance, as a method of connection with others, seems to be the undertone of this piece.
Baker’s figures are rendered distinctively across the spaces they occupy. Private moments in the bedroom, where solitude has presumably crept in after these encounters, jumble the body. Suggestions of sensuality are contrasted with a stronger sense of something lingering, either within the physical or psychological. “Let sleeping angels lie” (2025) shows a pink figure at rest, facing the viewer as blue figures creep above threateningly.
This COL Gallery collection is an exploration of what it often feels like to inhabit a body: to experience exhilarating freedom in social settings and then return to the private world to process your own existence. Baker’s renderings are evocative of movement, sure, but primarily mood — she incorporates deep purples, fleshy reds and sunny greens while the imagination of self stays present in every painting.
“A love affair with the tax man” (2025) is a mesmerizing use of Baker’s signature elements. The headboard of a bed is visible in the background, while bras, underwear and other feminine garments seem to fling themselves from the bed. A figure, its face depicted in simple tan and white shades, seems to ooze in blue and maroon toward the floor. A hand holding a beer bottle looms in the same colors just to the right. The body, to Baker, is a waterfall: Is this flowing scene the present or future effect of a drink?
Baker’s bodies are endlessly intertwined. At bedsides and across pub tables, arms blend into each other while keeping their distinct hues. Vibrant line work represents the shadows of hands, underarms or the bend of the knee, testaments to the endless possibility for abstraction within the body. “Stuck to the honey on my back” (2025) is a marriage of blue, yellow, green, pink and every variation between in the rainbow. Smartly placing her values and hues, Baker portrays a scene of inescapable intimacy: Two blurry faces and outstretched, knuckled hands meld with limp arms and bodily bends.
Working in brushstrokes defined by fluidity, Baker’s material approach reflects the themes of her work. Most paintings in “Risk of Delight” render human bodies in particular states: performance, privacy or a careful blend between the two. Where does intimacy take place? In a bar? Between shared glasses of wine? The next morning, after strange love affairs in unfamiliar beds? Baker’s work poses a captivating question of what it means to exist in a body — both alone and with company.
“Risk of Delight” will be up until Jan. 10, 2026.