bad skin in Exposed: The Contemporary Nude

bad skin at 1650 Gallery

Saturday, 24 May marked two important milestones for me as an artist. It was both the exhibition debut of my bad skin series and also my Los Angels debut at large. Exposed: The Contemporary Nude opened at 1650 Gallery. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it out for the opening. But I’m glad to show work in LA. And it seems very appropriate that bad skin–a body of work about looking beyond the perceived imperfections of one’s body–had its exhibition debut in a city known for it’s superficiality.

If you’d like to see the full image, as well as all the other work in the show, you can do so on the gallery’s website. But remember that it is a show of artistic nude photography and therefore may be NSFW! They have included two additional photos of mine in the online annex (also NSFW). The limited edition giclée print in the show is available exclusively from 1650 Gallery. If you are interested in other prints from bad skin, you can contact me directly.

Linocut portrait of luke kurtis by Rick Villodas

"The Collaborator" linotype by Rick Villodas in Cyber Blade

Rick Villodas’s linoleum cut based on my self-portrait from the cover of INTERSECTION no. 7. His print won an award at the Richter Association for the Arts member art show. Rick is such a talented print-maker and I love the way he transformed my work into a new medium. Above is a photo I took of his print, titled The Collaborator, as exhibited in the Cyber Blade show (which also contained our Collaboration piece). Below is the cover of my zine his print is based on.

INTERSECTION no. 7

Cyber Blade group show curated by Rick Villodas

luke kurtis with his "muse" prints at Cyber Blade

This past weekend I showed some work from my muse series for the first time since last year. Rick Villodas, who first saw my muse prints in the Just Panic… show, curated the Cyber Blade show. He selected some of the works that were in Just Panic (muse no.’s 7, 11, and 12) along with muse no. 18, which had never been shown before. It was just a weekend pop-up show but I was able to make it up to Danbury that Sunday. It was refreshing to get out of the city for an afternoon (even though it was a bit cold–the venue’s furnace was out that weekend)! Above is a photo of me with my work (photo by Matthew Cales).

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Just Panic… exhibition in NYC

luke kurtis in front of his work at the Just Panic... exhibition in NYC

I don’t know how I let this happen but somehow in the hustle and bustle of it all, I never even mentioned here that I had several works in Derek Nicoletto‘s show Just Panic And Get It Over With at 287 Spring gallery in NYC. It was a quick, one-weekend popup show from 12 July to 14 Mar. I was very happy to be part of this amazing group of artists. I showed six works from my muse series. No’s 7-12 marked the New York debut of this ongoing body of work.

One of the highlights of the opening was the chance to meet some of the members of the í¼ber-cool synth punk band ATTACK.WAV. Tree Wave wrote up a great piece on the show over at Plus Heart Star and used a few of my photos of the opening. Tree Wave called my work “rad” and “next-level pop-art-ish.” How cool is that?

Other artists in the show included Christopher Stout, Rob Ordonez, and Paul J. Toussaint. Be sure to check out their sites as they are doing very interesting work. But there was so much talent present. Take a peek at the Just Panic Facebook page to see all the artists and their work. Many of the works are still for sale. As Derek said… want to support the arts? Support an artist!

Thank you to all who came out. And, of course, thank you to Derek Nicoletto for making it all happen.

Field Notes: Landscape and Architecture exhibition in Portland, OR

Anderson's Cemetery, Subligna, Chattooga County, Georgia

Opening yesterday in Portland, Oregon, one of my photos is included in the new exhibition Field Notes: Landscape and Architecture at Black Box Gallery. The opening reception will be on Friday, 7 June 2013 and the show runs until 20 June. If you happen to be in the Portland area be sure to drop by. Otherwise, you can check it out online.

The photo on view in the Field Notes exhibition was taken in Subligna, Georgia. I took this photo last year while doing Jordan’s Journey research. That day I photographed and inventoried Anderson’s Cemetery (you can see that inventory and some of the photos at Find A Grave). This gives you an example of how genealogy and art have coalesced to form Jordan’s Journeys unique take on exploring the past.