Luke Vallar

Work              Teaching             About             Contact    

CV



BIO

   
   
Luke Vallar (b.2004, Trenton, Michigan) is a Detroit based ceramic artist and future art educator. He is currently pursuing a BFA in Craft and Material Studies with a focus in Ceramics/Art Education at the College for Creative Studies and will be graduating in 2026.  His work is influenced by the intersections between queer identity and digital culture. Luke’s work has been featured in the College for Creative Studies Annual Student Exhibition, Center Galleries, Articipate Gallery, and the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center.


ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores the intersection of queer identity and digital culture.  I reflect on personal experiences shaped by growing up with limited access to a queer community.  This combined with my limited access to the internet has caused me to become fascinated with digital queer culture and the shared queer experience. My interest in digital culture also comes from its expansiveness and endless amounts of information, niche subcultures, and unique references.  A major inspiration in my work is mlm(men loving men) culture which can include slang, grindr, coming out videos, and everything in between.  By drawing attention to niche parts of mlm culture I can bring people into my digital space and deepen their own understanding of specific queer experiences.  I use my ceramic objects as tools to move people into this digital space, but also to create a space for my work to exist in.

Growing up Catholic has made me interested in the iconic nature of Catholic narratives and aesthetics. Similar to a homily, I take these timeless narratives and modernize them through a queer lens.  My work takes iconic Catholic imagery like the forbidden fruit or an angel and relates them to queer culture to alter the viewers' relationship with these stories and images.  Both biblical and digital imagery offer me recognizable images that I use in order to merge elements of play, shame, and identity into my work, to convey a queer narrative.

I am drawn to ceramics for its adaptability and permanence. Its adaptability allows me to experiment with form, surface treatment, and concept, while its fired state preserves those explorations as tangible objects.  Through these explorations ceramic objects become analog vessels to hold information similar to a computer.






.my/website