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One of the great privileges of working at the gallery is the opportunity to work with young emerging artists. They bring youthful passion, energy, and enthusiasm, and they are eager to create, exhibit, and learn. As a bonus they inspire me to keep pushing creatively and avoid becoming stagnant in my older years. They are often free from many responsibilities that come with older adulthood, which allows them a window of opportunity to push hard into their creative practice. By offering friendship, mentorship, time and a listening ear they can often thrive and prosper setting up solid and sustainable patterns of studio practice that set them in good stead for their future artistic journey.

In 2025 I came across the work of the young Tasmanian artist Liam Ross Baker. His work immediately connected with me and he was invited to show with us. This was great timing as he had been thinking about opportunities to show his work on the Australian mainland. Liam has now moved to Melbourne and is working enthusiastically from his new studio. His move to Victoria and subsequent solo and group exhibitions here at Boom has afforded me the opportunity to get to know him a little. He is an incredible person: laid-back but energetic, thoughtful, intelligent and extremely honest. He sees the common, elevates it and exposes the beauty in the overlooked and the obvious. He raises the profile of seagulls, pigeons, and cormorants. These birds are often maligned and scorned. Liam takes the time to look at, love, and appreciate these outcasts. 

Against this backdrop of birds he contrasts his own human form using himself as subject matter. In his current exhibition Wings, the artist's body is stripped of clothing and adornment apart from a ring on a finger. Clues to his profession appear in small paintings of hands holding a pencil or an artist's brush. The artist joins the birds in becoming the common form that we sometimes do not see clearly, just one of millions. This work is important, earnest, and thoughtful and we feel honoured to show it here at Boom. We look forward to seeing the progression of Liam's practice and where this journey of making art takes him.

Ren Inei - Director and Curator.