Lukas Luzius Leichtle

Lukas Luzius Leichtle’s practice is rooted in his interaction with the medium of painting and the sensitive observation of his intimately staged subjects.

By building up his works through successive layers of transparent pigments, and his use of abrasive tools such as sandpaper or manicure milling cutters, Leichtle creates tactile and intricate surfaces, digesting the human experience and the expectations of functionality, placed upon the body.

The space surrounding his depicted subjects appears to be tight, drawing in the viewer and inviting them to observe. Based upon the artists interest in psychological phenomena he probes for moments in which these inner workings manifest in physical form. Bodies transform into interpersonal landscapes, details of skin turn into translucent diaphane surfaces and functional organs turn into dysfunctional flesh. The depicted body parts are compressed and twisted, tested, pushed into abstractions and viewed from considered perspectives, to see the supposedly familiar in a new light.