Meet Luke…

Luke Johnson is an artist working in print media, drawing, and durational engagements within collections. Within his work, Johnson draws from the stories and unintended afterlives of archival materials, responding to the ways objects embody, or fail to embody, their history and intent. Using photographic print methods and subsequently developing the work through acts of drawing, his works blur the distinctions between the archival qualities of the camera’s lens and the subjective marks reinforced by hand. The resulting works pose a series of visually transmitted questions: what does it mean to leave a mark? Does it matter if such marks are traceable to their sources? And what does it mean to consider those marks, passed down through time by those who came before us, which may no longer be legible?



Originally from Minnesota, Johnson received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his MFA from the University of Alberta. He has taught printmaking, drawing, and related courses at the University of Alberta and Red Deer Polytechnic, and is currently a visiting assistant professor of art at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.