Luba Lukova is an American visual artist, known for her thought-provoking images and expressive poster designs. Her work has won international acclaim, and is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Denver Art Museum, the

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in Washington, DC, and

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in Paris.

Biography

Lukova was born in

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

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, and studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. She moved to the United States in 1991, after traveling to participate in the Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition; shortly thereafter, she was hired by the

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

and established her studio in New York City. Lukova's work is exhibited around the world and has won many awards including: Grand Prix Savignac at the International Poster Salon in Paris, ICOGRADA Excellence Award, and Reisman Foundation Award. She holds an honorary doctoral degree from the Art Institute of Boston.

Work

Lukova is known for using bold contrasts, visual metaphors, and highly focused concepts to create images that take "only seconds to grasp meaning." Stylistically, her work has been compared to that of German Expressionists, Escher, and Picasso, and she cites inspiration from

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''T ...

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

, and Chekov. Her art incorporates vivid colors, simplified figures and hand-rendered

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...

, and frequently comments on

social issue A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...

s including income inequality, censorship, corruption, and environmental conditions. "Her seemingly simple, two- or three-color images carry the emotive power of expressionist wood engravings ..Lukova's vocabulary is the human body, stretched, deformed, twisted gracefully and grotesquely." These themes are prominent in her ''Social Justice 2008'' series of posters, as well as works for Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian organizations, universities, Broadway productions, non-profit organizations, Shakespeare plays, choreographers, and the War Resisters League.

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

* ''Luba Lukova: Designing Justice,'' National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2021–2022 * ''Luba Lukova: Designing Justice,'' Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2020–2021 * ''Luba Lukova: Designing Justice,'' Museum of Design Atlanta, Georgia, 2017 * ''Graphic Guts: The Art of Luba Lukova,'' Glassel Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2015 * ''Graphic Guts,'' Gold Coast Arts Center, Great Neck, New York, 2015 * ''I Have a Dream,'' UAB Visual Arts Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama, 2012 * ''Social Justice and Other Works,'' Fairbanks Gallery, Portland, Oregon, 2009 * ''Umbrellas, Social Justice & More'', La Galleria at LaMaMa, New York, 2009 * ''Umbrellas, Social Justice & More: Two Exhibitions by Luba Lukova'', The Art Institute of Boston, Massachusetts, 2008 * ''The Printed Woman, an installation with prints by Luba Lukova'', La Galleria at LaMaMa, New York, 2001

References

External links