Benjamin Lumb Art House is an art gallery working with emerging and established artists with a focus on photography, installation and paintings. Out-of-the-ordinary spaces have included a storefront, an old warehouse, rotating pop-up locations across the Lower Mainland, and now the space at 114 West Hastings. As a well-established and practicing artist in his own right Lumb inherently understands the work of the artists he represents and exhibits and is able to curate and support the narrative, that they seek to communicate.
Lumb’s current exhibition undertaking is the latest body of work by the infamous Attila Richard Lukacs entitled ‘Pony Boi.’ (See below for Artist Biography) Lukacs’s work is known for its bold and provocative themes, often exploring concepts of masculinity, sexuality, and subcultures. In ‘Pony Boi,’ Lukacs continues to push boundaries with his vibrant and confrontational portraits of queer subjects. The exhibition is set to coincide with the highly anticipated celine paolini concert, creating a culturally rich and immersive experience for art enthusiasts and music lovers alike.
Pony Boi – Now on Display
Pony Boi, Attila Richard Lukac‘s most recent body of work, delves into memories of his time in New York City between 1999 and 2001. Originally, Pony Boi was conceived as a zine he created together with associate editor Hugo Rempel. It included various artistic contributions from artists such as Tim Gardener, Charles Henri Ford, Dieter Hall, Graham Gillmore, Rick Castro, Jaroslav Mogutin and many others and was sold at the Gay and S&M Leather Street Fair on West 13th Street in NYC.
Longing to start his life over, he left the artist – the entity – Attila Richard Lukacs behind and disappeared into being Pony Boi. The narrative of the piece PONY BOI vs DRUM comes from his adventures as Pony Boi back in New York City. Blurring lines between fact and fiction, the work is based around the on-goings of the neighbourhood of his New York studio, the meatpacking district and the naughty and steamy happenings at nighttime.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the meatpacking district was a melting pot of sex-workers, transvestites, meat packers, bikers, police and people coming in and out of the late night sex clubs, S&M leather club The Lure and biker bars. Re-examining the theme of Pony Boi, Attila’s current body of work is an extension of this large-scale piece, PONY BOI vs DRUM and the original zine, resembling magazine covers blending pornography and Kunst.
Pieces are for sale and range from $4,000 to $150,000.
BLAH (Benjamin Lumb Art House) at 114 West Hastings St., Vancouver, BC
The exhibition will run October 5 – 27, 2023. The gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday between noon – 6pm.
BLAH Underground
Lumb, who also curates BLAH Underground – a very private guest-list-only activated underground space that features DJs (international and Los Angeles) and curated first-look and first-hang pieces – invited us for a walk-through of the secret location after the PONY BOI launch.
Attila Richard Lukacs Biography
Internationally recognized Canadian Painter, Attila Richard Lukacs was born in Alberta in 1962. In 1985, Lukacs graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. While still a student at Emily Carr, Lukacs and seven other painters were selected for a show at the Vancouver Art Gallery titled The Young Romantics. The exhibition, curated at Scott Watson, focused on new young painters whose work was seen as the return of painting.
Lukacs moved to Berlin in 1986, working at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin and in 1996, he relocated to New York City in order to be closer to the center of American art. In 2001, he left New York for Maui, Hawaii and finally returned to Canada in 2003. The artist now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where he maintains a full-time studio on the east side.
Lukacs became famous for his large, ambitious paintings depicting exaggerated masculine figures in the classical tradition. His paintings illustrate the artist’s intimate knowledge of the historical compositions and themes of David, Rembrandt, Giotto and Caravaggio as well as the compositional devices of the miniature painters and illustrators of India and the Middle East. Not just as figure painter, his range as an artist is evident in his stunning abstract paintings and collages as well as a collection of paintings of flowers and trees and numerous etchings.
Lukacs has shown extensively internationally and has work in collections such as Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary, Edmonton Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada, Canada Council Art Bank, Canadian Embassy, Saudi Arabia, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent, Belgium, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Froahlich Collection, Germany, Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Germany, Phyllis Kind, New York, John Stewart Collection, New York, Salah Bachir, Toronto and Dietmar Werle, Cologne, Germany.
Biography courtesy of the Herringer Kiss Gallery.
Author Profile
- Helen Siwak is the founder of EcoLuxLuv Marketing & Communications Inc and publisher of Folio.YVR Luxury Lifestyle Magazine, PORTFOLIOY.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, and digital women's lifestyle magazine EcoLuxLifestyle.co. She is a prolific content creator, consultant, and marketing and media strategist within the ecoluxury lifestyle niche. Post-pandemic, she has worked with many small to mid-sized plant-based/vegan brands to build their digital foundations and strategize content creation and business development. Helen is the west coast correspondent to Canada’s top-read industry magazine Retail-Insider, holds a vast freelance portfolio, and consults with many of the world’s luxury heritage brands. Always seeking new opportunities and challenges, you can email her at helen@ecoluxluv.com.
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