Laura Lancaster & Rachel Lancaster: Remember, Somewhere at Baltic
There’s something magical about seeing Laura and Rachel Lancaster’s work side by side. On their own, each sister makes stunning paintings. Together, they make an exhibition that feels hazy and nostalgic. Like catching flashes of memory from a dream, sometimes vivid, sometimes slipping away the moment you try to hold on.
The twin sisters share a studio but approach their source material in completely different ways.
Laura works from found photographs, slides and cine film picked up from flea markets or online auctions. She transforms these scraps of memory, strangers caught in half-forgotten moments, into paintings where abstraction and figuration blur. They’re fragmented, surreal, and melancholic — like memories you’re not sure are yours.
Rachel, in contrast, paints fragments lifted from 80s and 90s film stills. A nape of a neck, a hand resting on a shoulder, folds of fabric glowing in the light. Her oil paintings capture these details with such precision that they look like they’re illuminated from within. In her new large-scale works, that intimacy becomes monumental, pulling you closer to witness someone else’s tender moment.
Seen together, their works speak to each other beautifully. Laura’s dreamlike expansiveness, Rachel’s glowing fragments: both reimagine the everyday and the overlooked.
Remember, Somewhere reminds us how much beauty sits in the in-between: the moments we forget, the images we discard, the tiny details that end up meaning the most.
Love this video from the Baltic that shares insights into Laura and Rachel’s practices.
Remember, Somewhere will be on display at the Baltic until 12th October.