Luke Piper | Planet Paintings

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Curated by:

Luke Piper

A new series of paintings exploring nature and the pandemic

An exciting exhibition of new works by Somerset artist, Luke Piper, opens in Wiltshire in September 2020. This virtual gallery has been created to mirror the physical exhibition at an enchanted location in the heart of West Country chalk meadow downland. The paintings, prints and photographs have been produced during winter of 2019 and through the global lockdown of spring and summer 2020.

While the work reflects love for the English countryside, it marks an even more urgent response to the world we live in, the current crisis and our conflict-ridden relationship with both nature and ourselves.

‘In essence we are at war. A different sort of war but essentially a conflict with our very own nature and with nature itself. Even outside the pandemic our relationship with nature has reached a tipping point. But the current crisis brings this conflict into sharp and relentless focus.’
Heavily influenced by both his grandfather, John Piper, and his father, Edward Piper, Luke’s painting also draws inspiration from a number of other sources including: prehistoric rock painting, Australian indigenous art, specific impressionists and war artists. The results are landscape paintings infused with blinding light, colour and primal energy
‘Whilst the work is dark in places, I hope it also brings light and demonstrates how there is always redemption - a way through, just as there is through the drovers’ roads of the Somerset landscape. With sublime beauty and elation there is also terror and darkness but the combination actually brings comfort, understanding and the vision of a way forward.’
The paintings are concerned not only with the current crisis, but with the internal anxiety of human existence as our impact on planet earth and the dissonance this causes, becomes increasingly apparent. Piper’s paintings are the psychiatrist’s inky doodles or the clairvoyant’s tea leaves in a cup, as ‘experts’ try to unravel our own personal responsibility for the myriad imbalances now facing us.


Some pieces look like they could be the viewed through the lens of a telescope or a microscope with a sense of projected or magnified objects in the darkness, yet they all relate to Piper’s connection with local lanes, byways and leylines, themes of previous works.
‘Our knowledge horizons are expanding on every front – into a world of new planets, black holes and microbes, from the infinite to the infinitesimal.’

‘A sense of immediacy and an attempt to capture the moment is key to understanding how transient yet universally connected things are. The circular planet paintings are really the next step in attempting to encapsulate all within the whole.’


The paintings will be exhibited in a physical exhibition near Monkton Deverill in Wiltshire from 21st - 27th September 2020.

The music on the 3D tour is composed and copyright 2020 by Entities.

For more information please visit the website:

www.lukepiper.com

Other exhibitions by Luke Piper

Luke Piper

St Mary's Chesterblade | Fundraiser 2020

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Luke Piper

New Planet Prints

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