Luke Thurgate is an Australian artist living and working on Gadigal Land (Sydney, Australia). A dedicated educator, he teaches drawing and painting at the National Art School, where he completed a Master of Fine Art in 2021. With an extensive exhibition history, Luke has shown his work in numerous regional and metropolitan galleries, including Grafton Regional Gallery, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Backwoods Gallery, Burra Regional Art Gallery, the National Art School, and Adelaide Central Gallery. His talent has been recognized in several prestigious art prizes, having been a finalist in the 2019 Dobell Drawing Prize, the 2020 Tom Bass Figurative Sculpture Prize, and the 2022 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award.
Luke’s multi-disciplinary practice is deeply engaged with themes of identity, gender, and power, particularly in relation to masculinity and sexuality. Through drawing, painting, and sculpture, he explores the tension between vulnerability and dominance, sincerity and parody, often engaging with the grotesque and the uncanny. His recent work employs the figure of the monster as a metaphorical vehicle for examining cultural anxieties and personal narratives. Drawing from a wide array of references—including popular culture, Catholic iconography, and queer historical archives—Luke constructs complex visual narratives that challenge conventional representations of desire, control, and transgression.
By blending traditional techniques with contemporary conceptual concerns, Luke Thurgate creates thought-provoking works that interrogate both personal and collective myths. His practice continues to evolve, offering a raw and compelling commentary on power dynamics and the fluid nature of identity.