Artist Statement

Steel sculpture influenced by street art, hot rods, graffiti, and urban culture.

 

Artist Bio

Luke William Achterberg grew up in the Fox River Valley Region of Wisconsin; the Grandson of welders and the Son/Nephew of automotive customizers and painters.  His undergraduate study focused on fine art, psychology, and philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.  Luke then decided to obtain a Welding Technical Diploma from Western Technical College in La Crosse.  This led him to become a certified welder and fabricator at a custom job shop for a year before attending graduate school at the University of Kentucky and completing his Master of Fine Art.  During his last year of graduate school he received the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center.  Since then, he taught Sculpture and Ceramics part time at Morehead State University for 3 years.  He also completed two fully funded residencies at Art-St-Urban in Switzerland.  He maintains his own active studio in Lexington, Kentucky, where he recently completed a body of work for a solo exhibition with Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York City, New York.  Luke Achterberg exhibits work both outdoor and indoor throughout the United States and Switzerland.