North Yorkshire, UK-based artist Lydia Blakeley’s soft realism captures the veracity of consumption and reproduction across digital mediums with a gentle, representational style. Born in Berkshire, UK, the artist explores themes of distribution and distraction such as hyper-real user-uploaded snapshots like memes and Tiktoks that reflect about the present. Whether it’s scrolling through PetTok, a niche of Tiktoks highlighting people’s pets, or the flash of a new, dire headline on global conflict, the artist’s work engages with the whimsical escapism provided in the barrage of memes and home videos, contrasted with the socio-political schisms unraveling before our eyes. Such a quiet, detailed realism resonates with a diversity of audiences and practitioners, as her work reinforces the permanence of image in an increasingly dematerialized world. Blakeley received her MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has presented solo exhibitions at Blank_ Gallery (Leeds, UK), Steve Turner Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) and Niru Ratnam Gallery (London, UK).