NEW YORK, NY.- Sperone Westwater is presenting new work by Emil Lukas. His third exhibition at the gallery is comprised of four series, including Stacks, Thread Paintings, Bubble-Wrap Paintings, and Liquid Lens (2016), an aluminum sculpture that represents an exciting new direction for the artist.
Many of these new pieces are shape-shifters, changing in appearance depending on light and vantage point, their physicality always in question. The Stacks are each comprised of dozens of individual works, layered one on top of the other to constitute body of the sculpture. Lukas’ most recent Bubble-Wrap Paintings bulge out from their physical frame, drawing the viewer’s eyes to the overall honeycomb pattern, building an awareness of the relationship between depth perception and color, an attribute similar to Lukas’s Thread Paintings.
Liquid Lens (2016), crafted from welded and calibrated aluminum tubes, demands physical engagement from the viewer. Recalling his long-term interest in perspective, Lukas has developed an interactive lens that breaks down the elements of seeing on a large scale. The curved shape of the sculpture is a material manifestation of one-point perspective—the form of the piece mimics the way all lines converge at the vanishing point.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1964, Emil Lukas has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad. Solo museum shows include “Emil Lukas: Connection to the Curious” at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT (2005); “Emil Lukas” at The Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, NC (2005); “Things with Wings,” The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA (2005); and “Moderate Climate and the Bitter Bison” at the Hunterdon Museum, Hunterdon, NJ (2008). In 2016, a solo exhibition of his work was held at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA. His work is in important private and public collections, including the Panza Collection, Italy; The Dakis Joannou Collection, Greece; the Anderson Collection, Stanford University, California; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Emil Lukas is on view at Sperone Westwater from 7 January – 11 February 2017, with an opening reception on Saturday, 7 January, from 5:00–7:00pm. For more information, please contact:
