Los Angeles-based artist Luke Pelletier pretty much does everything; from painting murals, making music, working on graphics, to blacksmithing, taking photographs, and sculpting, he generally weaves through different mediums with ease.
It's no wonder that the North Carolina native will bring together interactive sculpture, installation, and painting for his second solo exhibition at New Image Art Gallery,IF IT FLOATS, opening this Saturday August 20th.Luke's art is filled with quirky personal anecdotes, dark humor, dualities, contradictions, repetition, and scenes of fetishized paradise, and IF IT FLOATS continues to riff on his own moral dilemmas with romance, objectification, labor, tourist culture, and Americana. What makes this show most anticipatory is the elaborate immersive installation Luke has created within New Image's four walls. Explained to us briefly by Luke himself, the installation will be an entire build-out of a house, essentially a building built inside of New Image Gallery. Furnished and decorated from floor to ceiling with details that Luke has planned, drawn out, and fabricated in his ambitious mind the installation will be completely immersive, begging art-goers to walk through the houses multiple rooms to observe the show.
IF IT FLOATS is undoubtedly Luke's most developed and ambitious body of work to date and will continue to build upon Luke’s signature figurative and geometric work, drawing influence from his time growing up in a tourist town and his time spent around Los Angeles’ entertainment-driven lifestyles.
Check out some installation photos below and images from the upcoming show.
