Search for the Body and Soul
Lucas Whittaker’s elastic and energetic abstract figurative works get straight to the soul of things. The Providence, Rhode Island-based artist is continuously at play molding and revealing figures which metamorphize and shapeshift across canvases marked and bound by evidence of great artistic persistence. Lucas Whittaker has endured this chase and play with body and form before, having been already placed in a personal physical battle with health and biology. Though while Whittaker’s relationship to the ever-folding and flexing forms on canvas is linked to the artist’s previous experiences, when it comes to the fluid and elegantly mutated abstractions occupying space in the studio, views of the body are inextricably linked to conditions which cannot be explained medically. The beauty in Whittaker’s transfigurations is both in how well they capture the intense search for the human in spaces and areas we don’t recognize, but also our personification of nonpictorial elements and our ability to perceive signs of life and soul in color, texture, value, and composition. Lucas Whittaker helps us see not only the body in full abstraction, but the pieces of ourselves which lie beyond representation.
Part One: Who is Lucas Whittaker?
Question #1: Who are you?
My name is Luke Whittaker, I’m an emerging artist currently living and working in Providence, Rhode Island with a studio at the Nicholson File Company Art Studios. Born in Toronto, Canada I was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of five. In the midst of treatment I moved to Darien, Connecticut and received treatment from Memorial Sloan Kettering. After a bone marrow transplant, radiation treatment and chemotherapy, I was rid of the cancer at the age of eight. I attended Darien High School, graduating in 2016, then went on to graduate, with honors, from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in painting. During my senior year I participated in RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome, Italy. Right now I am working on developing my portfolio and challenging my own practice
Question #2: Who are you as an artist?
Although I have graduated as a member of the Painting Department, I have never identified myself as a painter, rather I draw with every medium I use. I obsess over figuration in everyday experiences. Capturing a feeling, moment, position or scene. The goal of my work is to pull the physical body out of the mediums I use. The stories they tell are similar to a time stamp of the moments that I am working on my projects. Emotions, history, thoughts, and feelings all captured from observation. Attempting to extract and reveal the body that resides underneath the surface of the canvas becomes a dance between my own figure and that of the painting. In order to expose the figure, I am constantly moving back and forth between materials ranging from classic charcoal and graphite to photoshop and illustrator. My physical paintings and drawings always find a new life through the digital collages I create from photographs of them.
Question #3: In terms of your artistic journey, why are you here and where are you going?
My first introduction to art was during my time in hospital. Most of my time was spent in the hospital bed drawing and sketching. While in high school, I created a series of works that attempted to tackle the experiences from my treatments and operations. This developed into a concentration revolving around the human form and its distortion. Right now I am working to expand my portfolio and challenge how my relationship with my own body and artistic practice can be pushed. My dream is to one day start a residency in northern Italy and provide opportunities for emerging artists.
What is your artistic practice?
Through out all of my work, regardless of the medium, there is a core fixation on the distortion and manipulation of the figure. This fascination originates from my own history with my physical health. My earliest memories recall my time spent in hospital receiving treatment for leukemia. This history has forever impacted the relationship I have with my body. This relationship constantly displays itself via the mutilation and exaggeration of any figure.
| Where/ How can Vacant Museum viewers see more of your work and where can they purchase it? |
| This is my website: https://lukewhittaker191.myportfolio.com/ Here also is my instagram: @lukewhittaker191 |