31 Oct ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS: LUKE ANDERSON

Luke Anderson instills Western themes with a bold contemporary sensibility in the mixed-media works he creates in a spirit of experimentation, combining elements of collage, stenciling, and energetic brushwork in acrylics and sometimes oil. “I have always described myself as an experimental artist,” he explains. “I don’t like the idea of getting too pigeonholed in one direction or the other.”

That approach yields results that are simultaneously bold and subtle. Take Golden Eagle for example. As a background for the eloquently outlined and modeled silhouette of the titular raptor, the artist formed a richly textured surface by collaging onto canvas an assortment of items that included newspaper and magazine clippings, snippets of old national parks maps, flecks of gold leaf, and postage stamps given to him by his philatelist father. “They formed a unique, unpredictable surface,” he notes. Although resolutely modern in their overall visual impact, the multiple background elements also subtly endow the image with a vintage, historical aura.

Golden Eagle | Mixed Media on Canvas | 24 x 24 inches | 2024

In an equally experimental vein, Anderson created A Little Bit of Everything by first applying a richly textured surface with geometric-patterned stencils in soft pink paint. Next, using prints of photos he’d taken, he cut out iconic Western forms like cowboys on horseback, deer, sheep, cattle, and geese in flight, “and threw them all down, spray painted over them in gray-green paint, then lifted them to reveal their negative images in pink.” The result feels like a joyously random celebration of Western life.

Anderson’s passion for art began in early childhood in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “I drew and wrote my own funny little comic books and went through a phase where I was drawing designs in my sketchbook for electric guitars, though it was all something I did just for myself and felt art-adjacent.”

In 2016, he graduated from the University of Wyoming after completing a broad humanities-focused program in American Studies, with a secondary major in environmental and natural resources — studies that continue to inform his dedication to reusing materials when making his art. “And then I picked the brush back up, and some people started to like what I was doing.”

Western Skies | Acrylic and Oil on Canvas | 30 x 24 inches | 2024

Though he’s only been supporting himself full-time as an artist since the spring of 2021, Anderson’s maverick talent has already won representation from respected galleries and inclusion in top events, including the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale in Denver, Colorado and Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis.

Anderson and his wife now live in Salt Lake City’s southern suburb of Holladay, “where I get to see the Wasatch Mountains every morning,” he says. “Being able to see mountains has always been an anchor to my existence in this world. And with my galleries nearby in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, it now feels like I have everything at my fingertips in terms of subject matter and inspiration.”

Anderson is represented by Visions West Contemporary in Bozeman, Montana; Gallery Wild in Jackson, Wyoming, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he’ll participate in a two-artist show at the Jackson location from May 15 to 26; and Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt, Colorado.

Based in Marin County, California, Norman Kolpas is the author of more than 40 books and hundreds of articles. He also teaches nonfiction writing in The Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension.