About the Artist

My current work focuses on large-scale paintings, 60"x48" or larger. I find satisfaction in the physicality of working at this scale, where I must move both myself and the painting, engaging my whole body in the creative process. Whether climbing a ladder to reach higher areas or shifting a piece from the wall to the floor, every movement is integral to the work. This full-body involvement infuses each piece with energy and immediacy, making painting as much a physical experience as an artistic one.

I am currently painting dahlias because I am drawn to their late-season bloom, when most other flowers have faded, and their resilience in harsh conditions. There’s power in their emergence, and I am fascinated by the human need to witness them at their peak, much like the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms. When I was younger, I spent a year living and working in Japan where I experienced the frenzy of "sakura" season. My colleagues and I would rush to the banks of the Hino River for "hanami," sitting beneath the pale pink clouds of the cherry trees in full bloom. That experience left a lasting impression, and I see a connection between our mortality and the need to witness beauty before it fades. Perhaps it’s a reminder of life’s fragility—how beauty is transient, and how we must appreciate it fully before it disappears.

--Alexandra Bailliere

BIO

Bailliere holds an MFA in visual art from Mills College, a BA cum laude in French from Duke University with extensive coursework in visual art and art history, and a post-bac in visual art and design from UC Berkeley. While on a Duke junior year abroad in Paris, she studied art history at the Université de Paris and painting at the Académie de Port-Royal. Bailliere spent a high school semester at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Lacoste, France where she focused solely on drawing and painting. While in grade school, she attended Saturday high school drawing classes at the Maryland Institute College of Art in her hometown of Baltimore. Bailliere has been drawing and painting since the age of six, when she spent hours creating art at a small yellow table in her bedroom.

In addition to sustaining an active studio practice, Bailliere is an adjunct professor of art at Contra Costa College where she teaches drawing and painting.

Bailliere's work has been presented at the Mills College Art Museum, the Worth Ryder Gallery at UC Berkeley, the Berkeley Art Center, the Palo Alto Art Center and the Five Points Arts Gallery in Torrington, Connecticut, among other venues. Bailliere was a recipient of the Being Human residency at the Palo Alto Art Center in 2018, and in 2016, she was a finalist for a residency fellowship at the Headlands Center of the Arts. Her 2022 painting "Look Up!" was the subject of a long-term outdoor public art installation in downtown Mill Valley, California from October 2022 through March, 2023 and is now part of the permanent collection of The Redwoods. She recently completed a large-scale commission that is be part of the new Citizens Bank private client office in the SF Bay Area. Her work is included in many private collections and the following corporate collections:

Brown Advisory
Chicken and Egg Pictures
Citizens Bank
Freshfields Law Offices of San Francisco
Green17 Design
among others.

Bailliere's work is represented by Hang Art in San Francisco. Please direct inquiries to info@hangart.com.

Portrait photo credit to Anne Sherwood.