3 - ... -Solo Show - 2016

This is not the first collaboration between the David Pluskwa Gallery and the artist. In January 2015 following the attacks that hit Charlie Hebdo, David decided to launch a charity auction and invited artists to create works for this purpose. Luke Newton readily accepted, because in the face of horror "an artist's reaction is to create", as he confided during the presentation conference of his Solo Show.

The work proposed then was part of the conceptual approach of the artist, and it must be said it struck very hard. A weapon created in coloured pencils, a dangerous consumer object designed with other everyday objects intended for children. A theme was born. The artist has again declined this idea in this Solo Show ... presented at the David Pluskwa Gallery.

"It's very English to say serious things with humour." "What interests Luke Newton by his admission is material, the gravity of which is expressed through its derision, "everyday things", and its reconnection with the physical object. The plaque representing cigarette packets with pearls is the very image of the artist's conceptual approach. In this creation Luke Newton reduces the cigarette pack, a consumer object that we buy and throw away but which is still packaged, "pretty", with its shape and colour. "They look like cigarette packs but they're actually just shapes with beads." "What interests me is the détournement of materials, thier symbolism and intended purposes."

Luke Newton considers that in a digital age we are becoming increasingly distannced from our connection with material and pysical world. The black and white hashtag could be copied thousands of times in the factory, or on a screen, but the artist takes the time to paint them by hand. Although he also admits to transforming himself into a one man factory, in particular to create his works in pencil. "I get up, I sharpen pencils. I glue. I fix. I go to bed. get up, I sharpen pencils. I glue. I fix. I go to bed", and this for several days he explains to support his point.

The works are very aesthetic and colourful, the technique is remarkable - no trace of glue is visible between the pencils, and contrary to what one would think, the hashtags have not been cut out, stamped or printed - with this conceptual approach, and the artist's message is even more intriguing.

Frequence-sud, 2016