Artist Talk with Luke Thurgate

Monday 12 May, 1pm

Free public event | Part of the Dobell Drawing Prize #23 exhibition at SECCA

Join us for an artist talk with Luke Thurgate, a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize #23. Luke took a bold approach by entering a wall drawing into the prize and has been travelling with the touring exhibition to install his piece directly onto the walls at each venue.

At SECCA, Luke will be recreating his work, I believe in you, live during the opening night and over the first few days of the show – including during opening hours on Monday 12 May. Visitors will have the unique opportunity to observe Luke in action and gain insight into his masterful drawing techniques.

Don’t miss this chance to hear directly from the artist about his creative process and the ideas and themes behind his works.

Luke Thurgate is an artist living and working on Gadigal Country (Sydney). He teaches drawing and painting at the National Art School, where he graduated in 2021 with a Master of Fine Art. Luke’s extensive exhibition history includes recent projects at Grafton Regional Gallery, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Backwoods Gallery, Burra Regional Art Gallery, National Art School and Adelaide Central Gallery. He has been a finalist multiple times in the Dobell Drawing Prize, the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, and in 2020 was a finalist in the Tom Bass Figurative Sculpture Prize. Luke’s multi-disciplinary studio practice uses the monster as a surrogate ’other’ to explore tensions between parody, sincerity, menace, pathos, transgression, and vulnerability. Informed by a range of sources, including popular culture, and Catholic iconography, his practice transcribes the Western Canon through a lens of queer aesthetics and subjectivity. Luke is represented in NSW by .MContemporary Gallery and in New Zealand by Ben Bergman Gallery.

FREE Event and Exhibition. All Welcome.

Pictured above: Image is from Adore you, 2023, The Drawing Gallery, National Art School. Photo by Tim Connolly