Bill Luke, or William H Luke as his mother calls him, is a Melbourne-based artist who uses street posters, collected late at night, as the primary medium for his gritty, urban works, mainly on linen. Decollage, it’s apparently called. His textured, layered artworks has the youthful energy normally channeled into teenage angst, yet this is the work of a grown man – a former signwriter – with quite a few years of life experience.
Late at night, after collecting poster debris from around the city, Luke heads back to the basement of a housing commission estate in inner-city Collingwood to assemble and then unassemble his mainly large scale works. This is the perfect site for such gritty, urban creations, and you wonder whether the art would be even half as honest if it were done in a suburban studio.
Luke has been exhibiting his first solo show at Urban Uprising for the past few weeks. See the full catalogue here, or drop in and check out these unique pieces of art.
