Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is pleased to announce The Writing Off The Wall, our first solo exhibition of sculpture by Luke Achterberg.

Steel and paint, the muscle and skin of manufacturing, are the same materials Luke Achterberg uses to mold and coat his sculptures. It would seem a mental cross walk from manufacturing to art, but that is the direction one takes with his work, and takes with a saunter. Achterberg’s invents a visual language. The artist says of his work, “I must acknowledge my fascination in the fashioning of human language into visual form.” He balances the linguistic references to graffiti, Asian characters, Arabic and English Calligraphy with color, form and material that are kin to the American old school hot rods, or the contemporary chopper. What happens in this meeting is something other than a dry conceptual reflection on high-brow / low-brow, East / West. This is not an invitation to more dialogue. The conceptual references play, they even dance. With all of the derivations ascribed to the sculpture, the success of the work is its accessibility; with a full gamut brought to boil, the pieces read effortlessly. Said simply, we more than get it, we get to enjoy it.

Luke Achterberg received his MFA from the University of Kentucky. He did an International Sculpture Center residency in Zofingen, Siwtzerland. Achterberg exhibits throughout the United States. He is currently teaching at Morehead State University in Kentucky where his studio is located.