What is your specialty, what makes your work unique? Or place your artist's statement.

The large scale paintings of Luke McCowan reveal an interplay with depth, space and layering within the paintings themselves. As McCowan uses his fascination for collage to create balanced, challenging compositions, the artist includes several personal elements that generate a texture and depth in an immaterial sense. Between the blurred photographs and geometrically aligned compositions of rocks, glass, or crystals, McCowan reveals an interaction between different approaches to his medium of choice, bringing together the worlds of photography and painting through the depth of focus in his layered work.
While most of the photographs that appear in his works come from his archive of family photo’s, the stones in his paintings provide a geological sense of memory and place, as they are natural to the area in Wisconsin, USA, where McCowan grew up. By blurring the photographs underneath, their memories are not just held in place by the stones, but also border a more abstracted sense of memory and passing of time that goes beyond that of either artist or spectator. McCowan’s fascination for this manipulation of imagery in painting, combined with the more naturalistic textures and nostalgic subject matter, gives way to multilayered and immersive compositions.

Written by Menno Vuister

What are your ambitions? What do you want to be in five years?

I would like to have continued to develop my practice, possibly having done a master's in fine art as well as working independently as a professional artist. Also, over the course of the next 5 years I'd like to have done some different artist residencies, possibly outside of the Netherlands as well to familiarise myself with the art world outside of the country I have studied in. Hopefully I would be accepted for some different fundings and display my art in multiple spaces, working with other creative people and expanding my network.

What is the most important thing you have learned during your studies?

The most important thing I have learned over the course of my studies is the reality of self motivation and how crucial it is to succeed. HKU encourages a lot of freedom, with which you can do whatever you want with and take advantage of in a positive or a negative way. No one is going to tell you to create or develop anything once you leave school. If I want to establish myself as a young creator, I need to make sure I am doing everything I can to prepare myself for when opportunities come my way, and make it clear that I am committed to what I am doing.

List of publications / exhibitions / prices / concerts / shows etc.

June 2021 - Graduation Show - HKU Pastoe Fabriek
October 2020 - Group show - Josilda da Conceicao Gallery
January 2020 - Group show - Kunstuitleen Utrecht - sponsered by K.F. Hein Fonds
May 2019 - Group show - Lou Oudenoord