Luke Hillestad's solo exhibition. Hurry to enjoy in Douglas Flanders Gallery till January 31,2026!

Описание: Luke Hillestad graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2006 with degrees in music and art. Hillestad has exhibited internationally: Norway, Spain, Germany, and nationally: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Nashville, Denver. “The Graces” is Luke’s first solo exhibition in Minneapolis in 9 years.
He apprenticed with Odd Nerdrum in Norway and Paris between 2008–2013, absorbing Nerdrum’s philosophy that kitsch is a legitimate artistic category distinct from “art”. Hillestad calls himself a kitsch painter in the tradition of Apelles, the ancient Greek painter celebrated for grace and beauty.
Initially skeptical of the word “kitsch,” Hillestad came to embrace it after studying Nerdrum’s writings and the book On Kitsch. He concluded that “kitsch” best described his profession and artistic aims. His paintings focus on primal beauty, archetypal narratives, and human nobility, often exploring death, kinship, ritual, and wilderness. Hillestad, like Nerdrum, argues that kitsch is not “bad taste” but a separate category of craft based, emotional, narrative painting. By embracing kitsch, he distances himself from contemporary conceptual art and aligns with Old Master traditions. Luke is a classical figurative painter, guided by the works of Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Odd Nerdrum. Self-taught , he learned his craft much in the same way as the Old Masters to whom he is often compared – through imitation and apprenticeship. His work contributes to legitimizing kitsch as a serious movement in figurative painting.