Hayley Barker’s spiritual sensibilities and artistic practice are wholly intertwined, with Mother Nature the beloved muse and primary subject of her paintings. Despite humanity’s interventions, the inherent beauty in life and raw wildness of nature always shine through in Barker’s work, both in unexpected places such as a nearly-bare planter box with two undaunted yellow roses, or in more overt vistas depicting Gothic skies descending over verdant landscapes. All beauty is equal in her eyes and worth more than a fleeting look. 

Incense presents eight new paintings by Hayley Barker that juxtapose scenes and locations directly tied to her present moment of living and working in Los Angeles with more hallucinatory images documenting memories of visiting the Santiam River in Oregon as a child, which her family lovingly dubbed “Riverwood”. Barker grew up exploring lush wooded trails, swimming in the pristine river and appreciating the wonders of nature in Riverwood.

Much of this rural area caught fire and burned down in 2020, providing us with another gutting reminder of the irreparable damage that has been inflicted on this planet. Riverwood’s scars are deeply personal for Barker, and in the painting, Incense (Riverwood 4), we see her childhood haunt ablaze and effervescent, caught somewhere between destruction and healing, heaven and hell. The work is a meditative offering to something lost and a hopeful spell cast out to the universe for change, which remains sadly realistic in its dreamlike haze as the world is still on fire.

The word “incense” holds dual-meanings– It often references a sweet smelling substance burnt to enhance one’s mood or spirit, which can also be used as an offering in ritual ceremonies, and when shifted to its verb form it means to enrage greatly, to inflame with anger. We need a determined and prolonged sense of hope to reverse our present course, and we must also summon enough collective anger to win the fight.

Hayley Barker lives and works in Los Angeles, California and has recently had solo shows at SHRINE (NYC) and Bozo Mag (LA). In 2017, Barker published a book called Vintage Self Help, a compilation of essays focusing on trauma, healing, art, and shamanism. Barker received a Master of Fine Art from the University of Iowa (2001) and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Oregon (1996).