Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1971, Alexandra Baraitser lives and works in Cambridge and London U.K. She recently won The People’s Choice Award and was Highly Commended for The Young Masters Woman’s Art Award at The Young Masters Art Prize (2025), organised by Cynthia Corbett Gallery. She exhibited at The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in 2025 and 2024, and in 2019 her paintings were selected for The Cambridge Show at Kettle’s Yard.

Alexandra Baraitser received a COVID-19 Emergency Funding Award (2020) and a Commissions East Award for mentoring with curator Rachel Thomas, currently chief curator of The Hayward Gallery (2005). She is the recipient of a British Council Award for a residency in Tasmania (2005) and won The Abbey Scholarship in Painting at The British School at Rome (1996-7). In 1999 she was shortlisted for The Mostyn Open and The Momart Fellowship. She was a finalist in the NatWest Art Prize (1998) and has exhibited at The Barbican Centre Galleries (1996) and the John Moores Painting Prize (1996). She also won The Ray-Finnis Trust Art Funding Award and The Florence Trust Studio Award (1996).

Her paintings have featured in The Independent on Sunday, The Observer, AN Magazine, The Big Issue, Assemblage Magazine and The Arts Desk Magazine. She is the founder of the Bricklayers Brunch artists networking group. Her work is in the Clare Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge, The Wood Design Centre, Tasmania, J Sainsbury PLC and in several private collections.

Alexandra Baraitser’s paintings reference 20th century modernist design, but also the Bauhaus movement and classic 1950s interiors. She takes inspiration from photography and will spend many months collecting magazine scraps from ‘interior design’ publications and newspaper articles, before starting on drawings and paintings. The work is painted on a white ground in one thin layer of oil paint mixed with stand oil, which gives the surfaces a glossy finish. Stretching the paint thin with soft dry brushes also helps to provide transparency. Although they are figurative, the pieces allude to something more abstract and over the years her work has shifted from photorealism to a more abstract form of expression, with fluid brush strokes emphasising the contrast of light and shade.

Wood Design Centre, Tasmania, solo show, 2006

EDUCATION
1994-1995 M.A. in Fine Art/Painting, Chelsea College of Art
1991-1994 B.A. in Fine Art/Painting, First Class, Wimbledon School of Art
1990-1991 Foundation Diploma, Distinction, Central Saint Martins College of Art

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Design Of Our Time, AMP Gallery, London
2021 In This Place, Willesden Gallery, London
2014 Alexandra Baraitser, Paintings, Nord Gallery, Cambridge
2007 The Future Past, Mark Jason Gallery, London
2006 The Usefulness of Chairs, Wood Design Centre Tasmania (Travel Scholarship and Studio funded by Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England)
2002 Mobila, Hirschl Contemporary Art, London
2002 Alexandra Baraitser New Paintings, Mission Gallery, Swansea
2000 Out Fit, Conductors Hallway, London
1999 Football Shirts, Paton Gallery, London
1996&7 Fine Art & Architecture, British School at Rome, Rome, Italy (funded by The British Council)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 RA SUMMER EXHIBITION ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, London, selected for room 9 by Sikelela Owen and Vanessa Jackson
2025 The Chair, The Lido Stores, Margate
2025 PRIZEWINNER at The Young Masters Art Prize, selected by Cynthia Corbett, The Exhibitionist Hotel and Cynthia Corbett Gallery , London
2024 Landscape Not Landscape, Rogue Gallery, St Leonards on Sea
2024 RA SUMMER EXHIBITION ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, London, selected for room 5 by Hurvin Anderson.
2024 Fiesta, Inky Fingers Gallery, ArtCan.org, London
2024 It Rose and It Fell, TERRACE GALLERY, London
2024 A Pull Or A Push, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London
2023 It’s My House, Home House Private Members Club, London, organised by Cura Arts, A Space For Art and Offshoot Arts, London
2021 SFSA Painting Open, No Format Gallery, London
2020 Then & Now, TERRACE GALLERY, London
2019 SHORTLISTED Counter Balance, ArtCan ART PRIZE 2019, Trinity Art Gallery, London
2019 The Cambridge Show, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
2019 This Instead of That, Arthouse1 Gallery, London
2018 This Instead of That, Lewisham Arthouse, London
2018 GLOW Park Theatre, London
2018 Silent Painting, TRIPP Gallery, London
2017 Desktop, ArtKapsule, London
2016 Scandinavia: A Celebration of the Nordic Province, Willesden Gallery, London 
2015 The Places We Go, A.P.T Gallery, London
2015 Human Traces on the Urban Environment, Clare Hall, Cambridge University, Cambridge
2013 Human Traces on the Urban Environment, Stour Space, London
2005 A Century of Chairs, Design Museum, and Shire Hall Gallery, Staffordshire
2004 High Art: Perspectives, Ashmore Gallery, Art Basel , Miami USA
2004 The Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno
2002 Kettles Yard Open, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
2002 Rebecca Salter(RA) and Alexandra Baraitser, Hirschl Contemporary Art, London
2002 Home From Home , Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, Worcester
2000 Beyond the Seen, Paton Gallery, London
1999 Kettles Yard Open, Kettles Yard, Cambridge
1998–1999 Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno
1998 SELECTED for The NatWest Art Prize, Lothbury, London with Tacita Dean, Callum Innes, Jason Martin, Luke Caulfield
1996 As It Is: Baraitser and Arnold, The Barbican Art Gallery, London
1995–1996 The John Moores 19, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

The Cambridge Show, Kettle’s Yard, 2019. Photo by Stephen White

View of Studio 7. PRIZEWINNER, The British School At Rome. Solo show 1997.