Charlie Lucas
(b. 1951) Alabama
"Simply Iconic"
September 2 - October 3, 2011
Artist Reception: Friday, September 2nd; 8-11 PM
Popularly known as "Tin Man," Charlie Lucas has attracted a large following. In recent years, he has traveled widely, lecturing at Yale University at the invitation of an African-American studies scholar and spending time as an artist-in-residence in France. A job-related accident in 1984 forced Lucas to give up his job as a maintenance man at a healthcare facility. While recovering from back surgery, he asked God to help him find something to do that no one else could do. Soon he began fashioning sculpture out of recycled metal. Gradually, his creations morphed in two directions: upward, to towering, gigantic men made entirely of spot-welded steel ribbons and 12 to 15-foot dinosaurs and downward, to 10 to 15-inch men and animals made of railroad spikes and bent wire. Although he has no formal art training, Lucas' sculptural work clearly combines skills he learned from observing his grandfather's mechanical and automotive repair techniques, his grandmother's basket-weaving, and his great grandfather's blacksmithing. In addition to creating three-dimensional sculptures, Lucas also paints. Indeed, painting was his first artistic endeavor after the injury, but he found that painting did not bring in enough money to support his family. As in his sculpture, humor is frequently the underlying theme of his colorful paintings, which combine realistic and quasi-abstract elements. Today, those rare, early, paintings are highly sought and rival his largest steel constructions in desirability.
His work is in many important collections including the Art Brut Museo in Paris. The University of Alabama Press published a book about Lucas.
Contact Billy Shire or Gallery Director Matt Kennedy for availability and purchase info: (323) 547-3227
