Opening April 2025, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is pleased to present a survey of works by Laura Lancaster and Rachel Lancaster. Identical twins and prolific painters, the Lancasters have carved out distinct painting styles and have exhibited nationally and internationally. This exhibition at Baltic will be the first institutional exhibition showing the sisters’ paintings side by side, and the exhibition location, in North East of England, where they were born and still live and work in their shared studio in Ouseburn, Newcastle.

Laura Lancaster’s work centres around the figure, often abstracting its presence, which is intensified by the manipulation of paint, creating ambiguous and surreal imagery. The inspiration for Laura Lancaster's paintings, drawings and installations is found photographs, cine films and slides of strangers. Lancaster's process-orientated practice forms an ongoing dialogue between the languages of painting and photography, focusing on the manipulation of the tension between the visceral qualities of the paint and the image it depicts.

Rachel Lancaster uses painting as a means to slow down the act of looking, focusing the gaze on often overlooked scenes. She depicts detailed fragments of imagery disconnected from greater narratives, rendering these fragments both descriptive and abstract, suspenseful, and open-ended; within this, her strategic use of ambiguity creates resonant pauses, allowing emotional undercurrents to come forth and find resolve. She reveals the uncanny beauty and quiet spectacle that lies beyond the action.

Presented in the Northumbria University Gallery, Level 3.