About
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Bio
Lucia Love (b. 1988, New York, NY) attended the School of Visual Arts on a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, where they studied painting and traditional animation. During this time, the craft of character design attracted them for its ability to communicate metaphysical experiences through gesture. Love’s visually rich paintings are loaded with references to art history, mythology, politics, and the dynamics of power. By layering these references, contemporary allegories emerge, pushing each piece into the realm of idea painting.
The symbolism of their paintings often illustrates oppositional states, such as doom - hope, solidarity - isolation, and reality - fantasy. The Water Carrier is a stand out from the Doomerang (being flung from and returning to doom) series, who depicts the struggle of being tied to a body, and the ability to transcend the material. In most recent works, Love explores angelic lore. As an homage to biblically accurate angels, they placed a ring-like symbol depicting a mutated paper doll chain to stand as “collective heads” for the angels’ idealized bodies. These angels stand in contrast to the Spancil series (a figure borrowed from Arthurian legend) where subjects appear hollowed out and floating in an aesthetic void. Along side these religious and mythological figures, historical big wigs make their cameos, alluding to the idea of history existing on a spectrum with mythology and religion.
Love’s unusual painting style incorporates multiple techniques, such as hyperrealism, brushy gestures, and a flat, cartoonish line into cohesive and dynamic compositions. Their idiosyncratic paintings have appeared at Albertz Benda, Cue Foundation, Kustera Projects, Kantor Gallery, Giovanni’s Room, Sargent’s Daughters, The Hole, JDJ Gallery, and others. They have done character design for Sony animation, as well as painting assistance for Emily Mae Smith and Jeff Koons. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, Art Net, Hyperallergic, Art 21 Magazine, and other outlets. They are a Pioneer Works residency alum, a Shandaken Paint School fellow, and their work has been included in the Xiao Museum in Rizhao city China.