Art Knowledge News
Glowlab Presents a Solo Exhibition of Post-apocalyptic Work by Alex Lukas |
 |
 |
| Written by Carla Underwood |
| Thursday, 12 November 2009 02:51 |
|
For "The Eventuality of Daybreak", Lukas has selected photographic spreads of well known metropolises from vintage publications and uses them dually as canvas and unlikely subject. Through a deft handling of paint and carefully placed screen-printed passages, the artist pushes these aging illustrations in futuristic contexts. Submerging these cities conceptually and physically, Lukas inundates images of American cities with layers of media representing cataclysmic floods and crippling overgrowth. Also included in the exhibition are works on paper depicting near-future scenes of devastated landscapes - crumbling infrastructure, overturned trucks and telling signs of human despair. As a counterpoint to the underwater cities, these darkly atmospheric and barren landscapes signal devastation through an unsettling sense of absence. Lukas’ intentional use of dated imagery presented in tandem with contemporary situations forces the viewer to reconcile two differing ideologies of urban space. The artist’s work calls into question society’s collective acceptance of the urban environment as an arena of destruction, once thought unthinkable and now seemingly inevitable.  "The Eventuality of
Daybreak" is Lukas' first solo exhibition with Glowlab. Lukas' works have also
been exhibited in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
London, Stockholm and Copenhagen as well as in the pages of Swindle Quarterly,
Proximity Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Village Voice, The Drama
and The New York Times Book Review. Lukas is a graduate of the Rhode Island
School of Design and currently lives and works in Philadelphia, where he is a
member of the artist collective Space 1026.Alex Lukas was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in nearby Cambridge. With a wide range of artistic influences, Lukas creates both highly detailed drawings and intricate Xeroxed ‘zines, comics and booklets. Lukas’ imprint, Cantab Publishing, has released over 30 small books and ‘zines since its inception in 2001. In 2005, Lukas won Tokion Magazines “King of Zine” competition for his experimental ‘zine Smashy Smash. Lukas’ drawings have been exhibited in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Stockholm and Copenhagen as well as in the pages of Swindle Quarterly, Proximity Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Village Voice, The Drama, and The New York Times Book Review. Lukas has contributed writings to Apenest, Juxtapoz, Providence’s The Agenda Newspaper and Swindle, and has lectured at the Philadelphia Print Center and the Megawords Storefront. He recently authored the booklet Underneath Providence, Findings Thus Far, a history of the East Side Railroad Tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island, co-published with Free News Projects. Visit : http://www.glowlab.com/ Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
Related Articles :
