Despard Gallery would like to congratulate Tasmanian artist Liam Ross Baler, who has recently been featured in VAULT magazine. Managing Editor and arts writer Devon Campbell caught up with Liam in Melbourne and spoke to talk about distinctive painting practice.
Campbell writes about how Baker’s experience growing in Dover, south of Hobart has influenced his practice, including the subtle tensions that run through his paintings created through an entanglement of contrasting ideas, such as fishing, isolation and wildlife.
Download a copy of the article below.
“Baker’s most recent painting, Self-Portrait in floaties (2026), began with a quote he encountered in a book about cod, where a fisherman is asked if he could really float with the life jacket he wears, simply responding, “I don’t want to find out.” The painting delves into the darker realities we protect against at all costs, in the hope we never have to discover whether we need that protection. It explores Baker’s own duality. Now based in Naarm/Melbourne, he is entering a new stage of his life, yet his feet remain planted on the Tasmanian shoreline.”
