Luke Elwes
Luke Andrew Cary Elwes is a British contemporary artist whose paintings capture his encounters with the landscape and with the elements. He gained prominence in the early nineties when he returned from his travels in India, Asia and North Africa with a series of key paintings.
Biography
Elwes was born in London, where he now works and lives with his wife, Anneke, and their two children Jake Elwes and Toby Elwes. He is the eldest of three sons of Peter John Gervase Elwes, an businessman in the oil, gas and banking industries, and Rosalie Ann, daughter of the Army officer James Hennessy. His grandfather was the painter Simon Elwes RA, son of Victorian opera singer Gervase Elwes. He is also first cousin of the actor Cary Elwes. His early years were spent in Tehran, Persia, where the light and space of the desert were a formative influence.He attended Worth School then between 1979 and 1985 he studied history at Bristol University and Painting at Camberwell School of Art. In 2007 he pursued postgraduate research in Art History at Birkbeck, University of London.
While working at Christie's, he began to travel and write, and after meeting Bruce Chatwin in 1987 he went to the central Australian desert to explore the landscape and its use in indigenous storytelling and artforms.
Since then he has continued to travel extensively, frequently returning to remote locations in India, Asia Minor and North Africa. In 1998, he served as artist-in-residence on an expedition to Mount Kailash, a holy mountain in western Tibet.
His work has also been inspired by the landscapes of Osea Island where he rented a cottage with his family for many years. Since 2007, he has worked in the former studio of Nigel Henderson in Landermere on the Essex marshes. In 2015, he was artist-in-residence at the Albers Foundation.
Since his first exhibition in 1990 he has had over twenty-five one-man shows in London, Paris and New York City. He also writes about contemporary painting for journals including Modern Painters (magazine), Galleries and the Royal Academy magazine.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Constellation, Frestonian Gallery, London Landermere, Frestonian Gallery, London Passage, Frestonian Gallery, London Floating world, Adam Gallery, London & Bath Floating world, National Trust, Flatford, Suffolk Albers Foundation, Broadbent Gallery, London Reflection, Campden Gallery Water Diaries, The Minories, Colchester Writing on water, Adam Gallery, London & Bath Luke Elwes: 10 Year survey, Young Gallery, Salisbury Constellation, Adam Gallery, London & Bath Celestial Confetti, North House Gallery, Essex Silent Kingdom, Adam Gallery, London & Bath Secret Water, Broadbent Gallery, London Peintures Recente, Galerie Marceau Bastille, Paris Refugia, Art First, London Flowing Ground, Broadbent Gallery, London Compass, Art First, London Recent Paintings, Art First, New York The Osea Paintings, Art First, London Peintures, Galerie Vieille du Temple, Paris Sanctuary, Art First, London Pilgrim, Art First, London Island, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London Peintures, Galerie Vieille du Temple, Paris Storyline, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London Landcross, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London Bungle Bungle, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, LondonSelected group shows
Vision + The Visionary, Kookmin University Gallery, Seoul, South Korea The Green Fuse, Frestonian Gallery, London Natural Beauty, North House Gallery, Essex UK Landscape of Memory, Galleria Ceribelli, Italy SAID Business School, University of Oxford Currents, Sladers Yard Gallery, Dorset UK Amici Pittori Di Londra, Galleria Ceribelli, Italy Sladers Yard Gallery, UK Segni di Londra, Museo della Grafica, Palazzo Lanfranchi, Pisa, Italy Segni di Londra, Fondazione Bottari Lattes, Monforte d’Alba, Italy- Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London Vital signs: 12 London Artists, Clifford Chance, London & Galleria Ceribelli, Italy Radiance, Sladers Yard Gallery, Dorset UK Cross Country, Broadbent Gallery, London Threadneedle Prize for Painting, London
- Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London Another Country, Estorick Collection, London Critics Choice, Browse & Darby, London L'Isle Joyeuse, Art First & Falle Fine Art, Jersey Hester Gallery, Leeds Genius Loci, Galleria Ceribelli, Bergamo, Italy Gli Amici Pittori Di Londra, Galleria Ceribelli, Bergamo & Galleria Ghelfi, Vicenza, Italy Mapping, Bury Art Gallery, Manchester
- Celeste Art Prize, London Translations, work from the National Gallery (London), Art First, London
- Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition, London
- Royal Academy Summer ExhibitionLook, Stranger! Art First, London
- Royal Academy Summer ExhibitionWater’s edge, Art First, London
- 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Art First, London
- Galerie Vieille du Temple, Paris
- The Hunting Group Art Prizes, London and Bath
- Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
- 14th Annual Open, Royal Overseas League, London & Edinburgh
- Bayer Earth Art Prize,, London Endangered Spaces, Council for the Protection of Rural England, Christies, London
- Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Centenary, Contemporary British Art & the National Trust, Christie’s, London Sanctuary Commission Project, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London Celebration, New British Art, Benjamin Rhodes Gallery, London.Reflections, Edinburgh & London Spring, Barbican, London Songlines, Barbican, London Earthscape, Hastings & Southampton City Art Gallery Il Sud Del Mondo, L’Altra Arte Contemporanea, Marsala, Sicily, and Milan, Italy The Broad Horizon, Agnews, London Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh 39eme Salon de la Jeune Peinture, Grand Palais, Paris 38eme Salon de la Jeune Peinture, Grand Palais, Paris