Biography

Luke Painter is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Toronto, Canada.  In 2001 he graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design and recently received his MFA from Concordia University.  He is a sessional professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design, The Art Institute of Toronto and the Toronto School of Art.  He is represented by Angell Gallery in Toronto and Bonneau-Samames Art Contemporain in France.

Statement

New Work
Over the past few years my artistic practice has taken on a number of approaches to print, painting, installation and new media.  My latest works have been large-scale paintings rendered with India ink and brush on paper that resemble particular tropes of traditional wood engravings.  These fictional landscapes and figure pieces enlarge and re-contextualize these tropes to create surreal outdoor spaces or ornamental busts of historical looking individuals. The repetition, use of ornament and laborious aspect of mark-making within the works is important for referencing this traditional use of woodblock. 

These works reflect my interest in fantasy literature and imaginary landscapes.  The title of my recent show of these paintings, Misty Mountain Hop pays homage to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Misty Mountains from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  The title also alludes to the Led Zepplin song of the same name, which tells the story of a love-in that is busted by the police for drugs.  In the song, Robert Plant sings, And I’m packin my bags for the Misty Mountains, where the spirits go now. 

Print-Based Painting Work
My previous print-based painting work (as well as digital print) has taken the form of architectural and natural structures that float on the surface of abstract backgrounds. These anthropomorphic images act as expanding and collapsing structures that reference paper architecture projects (projects that have never been built due to their fantastical and elaborate nature).  These works are a combination of print techniques (photo-digital intaglio and ala poupee inking) and painting techniques (oil and acrylic).

Animation
My current animation works illustrate fantastical architectural projects in the vein Soleri’s Arcology pieces and Buckminster Fuller’s Floating Geodesic Spheres.   The Tower of Babel is represented as a vertical form of architectural time periods resulting in a collapse of stylistic concerns under their own weight. The Tower presents the current use of a synthetic aesthetic prevalent in manufactured spaces (condos for one example). This is mixed with the last few hundred years of popular architecture including neo- classicism, the international style of modernism and the more recent use of the mixture of styles culminating in what is labeled postmodernism. The erection of the Tower is propelled by a utilitarian looking industrial revolution style of architecture that underlines some of basic underpinnings of western architectural development. As in the tale of Babel, these different voices (styles) collapse and separate only to be rebuilt again in a continual loop that historically implodes on itself.