Following his graduation from Chicago Art Institute a year ago, Luke Pelletier made the move to Los Angeles in further pursuit of his creative endeavors. His first solo exhibition with New Image Art was shown shortly thereafter with much success and interest. Since that showing, Luke has been traveling, painting mural, making music, working on graphics, blacksmithing, taking photographs, and generally weaving through different mediums with ease.
Finally settled in, Luke is returning to New Image Art Gallery for his second exhibition displaying his most developed and ambitious body of work to date. IF IT FLOATS... 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. Much of Luke's art blurs the lines between celebrating and condemning a culture that agrees to be taken advantage of while it takes advantage of others. His art is filled with quirky personal anecdotes, dark humor, dualities, contradictions, repetition, and scenes of fetishised paradise.
Taking over the entire gallery and transforming the space into a Natural History Museum meets island dive bar, IF IT FLOATS... breaks the gallery into 4 separate rooms, each fit with its own unique art viewing experience. The arrangement of rooms leads viewers from one room to the next evoking a sense of narrative within the space. Luke's newest body of work continues continues to riff on his own moral dilemmas of romance, self reliance, and leisure, playing with ironic twists on both tourist culture and American nostalgia.
