Untitled, 2016
Sun Capital Office
Luke Diiorio was born in Bethlehem, PA in 1983 and painted recreationally for 15 years before obtaining a Master’s degree in fine art from the Royal College of Art in London and adopting a unique and contemporary minimalist style.
Now, the Brooklyn-based artist stitches together and folds swaths of raw linen and dyed canvas, placing the fabrics directly onto wooden backings or stretching the sewn materials over wooden frames. The folds create geometric patterns, shadows and lines that become the subject of the work, while also drawing attention to the construction of the work.
“The eye has intelligence that goes further beyond our language. It’s quick to the scene, so I respect that,” the 32-year-old says. “That’s why I have these different backings, because I know the eye can tell.”
Diiorio says, “I was always interested in fragmenting stuff, chopping an image up, and splicing the surface. The fold is a nice way to bring up an image. Even if the image is quite minimal, the image is abstract, but to break it up really fragments it, which I have always been interested in—in painting, sculpture, other people’s work, in language and poetry. So folding was a nice way to do it. The image travels.”
Diiorio has exhibited at institutions including Royal College of Art, London, Departure Foundation, London, and a number of galleries since 2012. In 2011, he was awarded the Jeremy Cubitt East London Prize for Painting.
