Luba Lukova This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Baltimore City Paper: Graphic Ambition (May 7 - May 13, 2003)

   www.citypaper.com/2003-05-07/g - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/14/2003   Last Visited: 5/14/2003

   Luba Lukova
   ...
   "Art is not a definition, it is an experience," Lukova says from her Long Island City studio.
   ...
   As a poster designer for a theater company in Sofia, Bulgaria, Lukova worked among artists, writers, and actors who practiced their crafts despite a regime that prohibited free expression. "A lot of people wanted to change that, and they did it through their work," she recalls, "but unfortunately the work was not public."
   
   In that environment, Lukova adds, "people didn't make such a distinction between design and art, so I was influenced not so much by design but by art in general. Very stimulating for me was to work in the theater and be among writers and directors and to make design which equals their work somehow, or enhances their work."
   
   Post-communism, Lukova visited New York in 1991, after attending a poster show in Colorado, and decided to stay. She continued to make theater posters advertising off-Broadway shows.
   
   Her award-winning work is powerful, iconic, and distinct. It's deceivingly simple, the result of long hours spent turning a complex idea into a metaphorical design without oversimplifying it. In contrast to the multilayered and overwrought design prevalent in the United States, she works in as few colors as possible, often only black and red on white.
   
   Figures with elongated limbs and bodies often morph into other objects, their wide-eyed faces humanizing or terrifying depending on the message.
   ...
   Lukova doesn't relate to gallery-bound modern art and the critics who make their living in its midst, preferring design's immediacy and relevance.
   ...
   Lukova asks in the end.