Bren Luke - 2020 October 29 2020

Feature Show
Outré Gallery Fitzroy
30 Oct – 17 Nov 2020

ARTIST INTERVIEW

Bren Luke was born and raised in Ballarat, Victoria. He studied Fine Art at Ballarat University, majoring in painting and printmaking, and graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. For the past decade or so, Bren’s work has been focused on traditional drawing techniques primarily using pen and ink. His detailed cross-hatching style was born from an interest in the 16th century engravings of Albrecht Durer and by studying the vast and varied work of underground comic book artists and illustrators.

At the end of May, 2019, Bren travelled to Japan with his partner Kelly for a short holiday, blissfully unaware of the challenges the world would soon face with the onset of the COVID-19 virus. Shortly after they arrived back in Australia Bren began working on the series of drawings which referenced from photos they took during their time in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Miyajima and Hiroshima. The 20+ drawings exhibited explore and depict a series of memories from the trip with an eye on the concept of Ma – the significance of negative space or 'the space between' in traditional Japanese arts and culture. The philosophy has been described as a pause in time, an interval or emptiness in space. As Bren progressed working, this concept of The Space Between took on new meaning in terms of COVID-19 and the new era of social distancing and travel restrictions – and some of the later drawings focus on this.