Luke Roberts

I am a painter originally from Anglesey, North Wales and currently based in Cardiff.
My paintings are self portraits, studies of surface and an exploration of the barrier between the abstract and the figurative. I create artwork that investigates the ‘human condition’, which is defined by the oxford dictionary as: “the characteristics and key events which compose the essentials of human existence, such as birth, growth, emotionality and mortality”. I paint skin as it has a role in all of this; both the inner emotional ego and outer physical experiences of life.
My works attempt to deconstruct the idea of skin as a surface, examining it at its most basic levels; a barrier between innards and the outside and an envelope that contains our being. I aim to portray flesh physically and tangibly; to push away from traditional representations of the human body. The viewer should feel as if they could reach into the depiction and grab the flesh within.
The subject of my pieces has become almost secondary, my work investigates a tension between picture-as-object and picture-as-representation; it is sometimes through curation that this aspect of my work is fully activated. By painting on stretched canvas and then deconstructing it into ind...

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Cardiff school of Art and Design, 2018-05-10

Art foundation course, Bangor College, 2015

2019 "Coalesce", Cardiff Made, Cardiff
2019 “Shift Residency”, Shift, Cardiff
2019 “Summer show”, Hearth gallery, Cardiff
2019 “Klatch 2”, Shift, Cardiff
2019 “Self”, Bath Fringe Festival, Bath
2019 “Crickhowell open”, Oriel CRIC Gallery, Crickhowell 2019 “Codi”, Rawfest, Millennium centre, Cardiff
2019 “Viridis”, Made Gallery, Cardiff
2019 “Klatch”, Aracde/Campfa Gallery, Cardiff
2018 “CSAD Foyer Space Exhibition”, Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff
2018 “Made by Hand”, Cardiff City Hall, Cardiff
2018 “Solo”, Maritime Museum, Holyhead
2018 “Beep Painting Biennial”, Elysium gallery, Swansea
2018 “Fine Art degree show”, Cardiff school of Art and Design, Cardiff
2017 “Group exhibition”, West wharf Gallery, Cardiff
2017 “SWINE”, Kongs level 2, Cardiff
2016 “Summer Show”, Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff