Lukas Mouka is a Czech-Canadian painter currently based in Campbell River. Over his career a unique style has evolved to incorporate diverse influences from a range of disciplines, cultures, geographies and eras into one single voice. His work frequently situates the human figure in landscapes that are as familiar as they are alien, which bears inflections of early 20th century modern artists, but in new and unexpected contexts that blur the division between subconscious and conscious experience. His inspiration draws as heavily from the landscape and nature as it does from philosophy, religion and modernity, to create a form which is equally psychological as it is primordial.
Mouka’s work is well-travelled and has appeared world-wide, with gallery exhibitions in Berlin, Prague, Ostrava and Toronto. His work has also appeared at the juried Toronto Outdoor Art Expo and the Ottawa Art Expo at which he was recognized with the Tom Thomson Award for Trailblazing Artists.
Mouka’s practice primarily involves working with oil paints and canvas, sometimes using photo reference and video still source materials. It is his goal to capture the feeling of life’s impermanence, of being mid-act, as he strives to find balance between deliberate and spontaneous brush marks. His process aims to allow the paint to intervene naturally and re-create the way in which light and physical movement can distort appearances and invent new, but fleeting, moments of meaning.
