Artist Talk: Luke Murphy of lukelab

Luke Murphy is an artist that works predominantly with digital and electronic media employing code, found or generated imagery, drawing algorithms, information systems, paint, randomness and sometimes radiation. He considers his work a kind of bridge between traditional media and newer digital forms. His most recent work uses the ubiquitous LED matrix panel to form screen sculptures which he programs, finding new possibilities in them and perhaps seeking an absurd entry into the Sublime-with cords and hardware exposed.

Each object operates with its own rhythm and system, cheerfully buzzing and glitching, but Murphy’s programs don’t repeat like animations on a loop. Rather, he writes the code to create formal propositions, each infinitely generating unique shapes, colors, and sequences, a practice more akin to endurance-based drawing exercises, yet designed and organized pixel by pixel.

There’s an irreverence to Murphy’s project but also an intentionality - he’s tinkering with crude, flashy technologies with the attention of a painter or sculptor, urging us to view the physical panels in tandem with the images on screen. Murphy’s motives seem more concerned with locating a capacity for pathos in the technology than celebrating or criticizing empty accomplishments. He seeks out the humanity of screens, the way they confound and alienate us and simultaneously reveal our aspirations, failures, desires, anxieties, and even joy.

His work and installations have been shown in New York, Paris, London, and Toronto and is represented by CANADA, NYC.