Luke Dowd’s “Gem” paintings are made out of hand coloured paper using, usually, spray paint and watercolour. Swatches of colour are then cut and pasted onto a backing paper ground. The overall outline of the pieces is sort of a shaped canvas. Each one has a geometric shape and design formatting that resembles a cut gem. They serve as a figurative format for a continued exploration into form, colour and line.
The gems represent value. Cheap and coarse, they are themselves fictional. They also have an allegorical relationship to the nature of art and its consumption. Mimicking light passing through an actual crystal they are alternatives to the real thing. But unlike real gems adhering to the science of physics and processing the light (colour) of the objects they rest next to, these “Gems” can be anything and look like anything. They are open.
So while they are like real gems, amenable to the laws of physics, as art, made to be purchased, they also adhere to the laws of capitalism by creating an artificial value for themselves.
Luke Dowd’s work refers to concentrations of energy and forms to refract light, with ironic references to power and healing.