Copenhagen Contemporary

Luke Diiorio – Q&A – 6 Questions for Luke Diiorio

1: Can you tell me about your background?

– On sundays my father would take me and my four older brothers on drives to visit various farms around the region. he did not know the farmers or land owners, but he showed us around nonetheless.

2: What is more important to you regarding your work: The Process. The visual outcome. The material? Or something else?

– clearly it must be all the three, for they inform and depend on each other so much. the process is the path we take to get to the visual outcome, and it so often becomes its own source of inspiration and meaning. the visual outcome is what we would like to project onto the world that best describes a unique idea or emotion, but we learn that it can never be free of certain limitations and context, like environment or circumstance . and material is a tool often thought of as secondary or auxiliary, but really it is the only thing can stand alone and hold beauty without limit or influence.

3: The works on canvas that are folded, Can you tell us more about them and the process.

– I think the folds relate to our relationship with the physical world. each visible segment of material overlaps a concealed equal portion, creating a rhythm of not only line and space, but also of visible and invisible.

4: The Framed walls from the New York show, can you tell more about them?

– Kiln-dried green douglas-fir s4s dimensional lumber. – ( common size: 2 inch x three inch. actual size: 1.5 inch x 2.inch) – Dietrich 2.5 inch metal studs. – Hardwood underlayment plywood sheeting, 48 x 96 inches.

5: What influences you?

– i am influenced by the all the contradictions of the world. the good from the bad, the truth from the lie. i think the human experience is quite dependent on them. as an artist, uncovering truth is like juggling the contradictions of life, keeping one or two in the air as we shuffle the rest with our hands. i approach my work as a path to pleasure, but i know that i must reveal a sense of struggle, pain, and and quiet anxieties in order to get there. it is important to find a balanced rhythm amongst the ironies of life, in order to make sense of it all.

6: Can you let us in on some of the future projects, works?

– I am working on a painting show coming up in Los Angeles, and group shows in london, miami and milan. and tonight we are making tacos!

From: >> Ana Cristea Gallery

“Luke Diiorio addresses the physical process of making with an exquisite lyricism that can only be born of artistic maturity. By questioning the fundamental roles assigned to form, material and content, his work poses critical questions which seem simultaneously obvious and radical: Under what circumstances do two distinct materials operate in harmony? In opposition? As one?

Following in the footsteps of artists like Robert Ryman and Blinky Palermo, Diiorio departs from many preconceived processes. Instead of placing the emphasis on extending the limits that define form and material, his paintings extend our knowledge and awareness of those limits to produce a more acute sensitivity and to elicit an intrinsic response to the works.

Aluminum, canvas, linen and wood are merely finite materials; however, the painter’s ability to manipulate our perception of these things extends far beyond the simplicity of their physicality. Diiorio’s presentation of everyday materials forces us to second-guess their origin.

Many of the works exude a chameleon-like quality. Diiorio begins with the unfamiliar, an undirected creation. By working from something that he does not quite know how to achieve, he uncovers a result which reflects a truer reality. Born of the unconscious, the familiar and expected are shuffled. The ensuing aesthetic vision is a product of accident, negotiation and failure.”

 Link to Feature with Luke Diiorio over at SundayS Gallery