Works By Lhouette

Born and raised in Luton, Lhouette had shown much promise during his early school years within the artistic arena, so much so that his art teachers had entered his admittedly unusual, yet wholly unique abstract works into numerous regional and national competitions. Despite not furthering his creative education at a more conventional time in his life, Lhouette has recently updated his CV by adding a post graduate diploma in Fine Art as received from the Birkbeck London School of Arts. Impressively Lhouette’s acceptance onto the course was based solely on his creative endeavours and experiences hitherto and supported by a portfolio of circumstantial evidence, whereas typically people have to have graduated with a decent degree to gain access to these courses.

Lhouette hasn’t wasted any time establishing himself as a creative force to be reckoned with, having in the space of a mere 4 years formed and founded a high street-situated art studio and exhibiting space for potential creative sorts to both express and promote their artistic wares, whilst showcasing his own talents at every given opportunity alongside his fellow collective. Lhouette’s leaps and bounds in the promotion of art at a local level hasn’t gone unnoticed within the larger community either, as in 2010 he became a finalist in the 'Bedfordshire’s Person of the Year Awards’ in recognition of his contributions made towards the arts.

So what of Lhouette’s art, and how can it best be described to the uninitiated? Many observers label it as ‘impressions of pop culture and fashion’, which, whilst being charitable doesn’t quite do his work justice to our minds. Ravishing colourations, explosive techniques and a cheeky turn of wit make for a peace-shattering clap of visual thunder would be nearer the mark. While his work undeniably lives in the pop culture and fashion worlds, it’s very much residing on the balcony of the penthouse suite, shouting it from the rooftops rather than just slouched in front of the TV relying on a steady stream of eye candy to stir its creative limbs into action and create original thought.

Lhouette’s urban touch lends as much to graffiti as it does to Pop Art and whilst not a painted vehicle for controversy does hint at and play on social unrest to a certain degree. However this pictorial offer of a clear and present danger ensures the artist’s images remain fresh and relevant. Lhouette opts for a deploying a specific stencilling technique which characterises much of his work, flooding the outlines with visually arresting coloured patterns, symbols, images and text to instil a sense of urgency and a call to arms mentality on those who pore over it.


Speaking of the fashion in which he constructs his compositions, Lhouette agrees that he is obsessed (his words, not ours) with the part colour and texture play in his paintings. He views this application as a grab line for the audience to interact with, which will hopefully rope them in so as to discover additional meaning to the piece. Lhouette’s decidedly mixed media work is assembled with acrylic and aerosol paints on rough ply canvas, and then sealed in courtesy of a clear lacquer resin finish.