Luke Overin : London Artist

Luke lives and makes work in South London. He uses a range of mediums from printmaking, drawing, photography and more. I’ve followed Luke’s work for a long time ever since I saw his artwork on punk record sleeves. Luke’s work is mainly based around documenting the dark and often humorous side of British culture. I went to see his recent exhibition ‘SMOK GANG’ and I loved it!! The exhibition was held in a basement of an arts bookshop. The first thing I noticed was a man walking down into the exhibition behind me was too nervous to go into the intensely decorated show. I went down into the basement which was covered in Space Raider snacks (for all you non British people.. wikipedia defines them as ‘an inexpensive British Corn based snack food’). Every section of the wall was consumed in beware of the dog signs, old horror film posters and many other weird items found in charity shops all over the UK. I found this exhibition to be an intelligent articulation of modern British pop culture. I especially enjoyed the screenprint on canvas of the characters seen on criminal alarm signs.

Luke is also a talented photographer and released a zine through one of my favourite publishers Cafe Royal Books. If you want to experience British culture with fresh eyes, Luke’s your man. To see more of his work go to : www.lukeoverin.com

here are more examples of Luke’s work….

Photos I took of Luke’s show ‘SMOK GANG’ :