Luke Skiffington

In our next Mixing It Up feature, artist Luke Skiffington shares an insight into how his work operates between the flat surface and sculptural form, his best experience in the art world and his top advice for artists.

Centred on painting, Skiffington’s practice includes panel works called ‘composites’, site specific wall drawings and large paintings on canvas. In recent wall drawings and paintings, Skiffington depicts ubiquitous structures that recall screens or windows placed in contrast with planes of modulated colour. Reflecting the precarious relationship between humanity and technology, recent ‘Composite’ works adopt early CGI facial animations, made in 1974 by the computer researcher Frederic Parke as starting points. Exploring relationships between figure and environment, his practice combines specific imagery with different kinds of support and modes of presentation. Amplifying their sculptural qualities, these works place graphic renderings against improvised on joined plywood panels. Through layers of paint and time faces emerge in a state of flux, between the flat and the illusionary.

Luke Skiffington graduated BA Fine Art Goldsmiths College, London in 2000 and completed an MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art in 2004. Recent exhibitions include ‘ANNIHILATION’, OHSH Project Central, London, 2023, ’Refractive Pool-Contemporary Painting in Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2022, ‘Echo Chamber’, Bridewell Gallery, Liverpool, ’Telephasic Workshop’, Mirabel Studios, Manchester, 2022, Bankley Open 2022, Manchester, 2022, INTERFACE (solo), The Stone Space, London, 2021, BEEP Painting Biennial 2020, Elysium Gallery, Wales. Previous exhibitions include ’Blue Screen’, The GlassTank, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford 2019, ’Manuscript-Letter Home,' China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou, China 2017, ‘Artist Of The Day 2016’, Flowers, London, ‘Blueprint’, InterviewRoom 11, Edinburgh, 2015 and ‘The Unassuming Eye’, Sobering Galerie, Paris, 2014. He has undertaken residencies at La Napoule Art Foundation, Chateau La Napoule, France 2005 and CAMAC, France in 2006. He lives and works in Liverpool where he runs the project space 50MV.