Lucas Klesch
Artist specializing in Photography, Poetry, & Abstract Paintings

Background
Born 1975 in Redwood City, California
Currently resides in Portland, Oregon
Bachelor of Science - Chemistry/Biochemistry - Portland State University (1999)
Master of Science - Analytical/Climate Chemistry - University of California Riverside (2000)
Art Showings
Group Show; Torefazione; Portland, OR; 2003
Group Show; Gallery 114; Portland, OR; 2004
Solo Show; POS; Portland, OR; 2004
Solo Show; Binks Gallery; Portland, OR; 2004
Annual Group Show; High Yellow Moon Gallery; Portland, OR; 2005-2010
Solo Show; Brick House Gallery; Eugene, OR; 2009
Book Publications
Manic Rose City: A Book of Poetry & Prose; Sunshine Ink 2006
Chasing Skirt: A Book of Poetry & Prose; Sunshine Ink 2010
A Love Song for an Inked Doll: A Book of Poetry & Prose; Sunshine Ink 2011
The Art of Twisted Pinups Vol 1 & 2; Photography, Sunshine Ink 2019
Seeking the Mystical Theory of Everything; Poetry, Sunshine Ink 2019
Extinction Rebellion Sorcery: A Book of Black & White Photography and Daily Meditations; Sunshine Ink 2019
Photograph Taken by Emily Klesch on Polaroid 2010
Lucas is a vintage renaissance man, who has spent his adult life in both the worlds of art and science. He has been a professional artist for more than seventeen years, and creating art for greater than thirty seven years. His body of work is a testament to the intersections of these two worlds, and allows the audience to engage them both in classic mediums while digesting the meaning of his expression. His photography is rooted in the basics of film photography classically handed down from his father. Much of his work carries a gritty style of documentation embedded in the intimate reality of a nostalgic rendering of a subject. The visual poems from his long standing projects of Disco Lemonade (nudes), Wicked Delicious (erotica), and Twisted Pinups (portraits) speak of deep connections with the humanity of underrepresented sections of society. The emotional awareness of his human subjects illuminate his ability to put the viewer front and center in the captured moment, and for them to understand the depth of the soul of the subject. These visual connections are rooted in the poetry of his genetic inheritance from both Emily Dickinson and Dylan Thomas, two great poets in history, who themselves used juxtaposition, and a bawdy rancor to draw their messages to their readers. He himself is a published author of three poetry books, and two photography books which take you on an epic journey through the gritty world of dive bar culture, inked hipsters, alternative living, and the emotional landscape of being an artist in Portland, Oregon after the turn of the century.
The contrast and juxtaposition of the early body of work versus his recent Visual Intersections (photography), Messages from the Universe (abstract paintings) as well as his recent book publications help us to see how his recent projects highlight both a return to his philosophical origins rooted in mindful balance with earth, and the introspection fundamentals on the origins of love, quantum science, and communication of truths left for us in nature. They illustrate the conflict and loneliness of modern living under the weight of our climate reality, as well as the powerful connections one can absorb from the universe. Visual Intersections is a project that uses film, and wanderings to look for the nostalgia of man’s decaying impact on earth, while celebrating the beauty of it. It grew out of the early urban decay photography that showed the history of Portland that has now been replaced by progress. This work is haunting in its vintage connection to days gone by, and helps lay the groundwork for the transformative science and historical context to his abstract paintings. These Messages from the Universe are a series of abstract paintings that look like nebula, and carry the quantum messages as mathematical visuals you only see when the lights go out. For a few moments, you see the truth of the universe, and man’s connection with all things in existence that has been carried throughout all spacetime by the love of sentient existence.