Luke Elwes lives and works in London. His early years were spent in Tehran, where the light and terrain were a formative influence. He studied at UAL (Camberwell school of Art) and holds undergraduate and research degrees from Bristol University and University of London. He worked briefly at Christie’s following graduation, and after meeting Bruce Chatwin in 1987 he went to the central Australian desert to study the landscape and its place in indigenous storytelling and artforms. Since then he has spent extended periods of time traveling and working in India, Asia and North Africa. In 1998 he was artist in residence on an expedition to Mount Kailash in western Tibet, and returned to the Himalayas in 2008 to explore the remote kingdom of Mustang. Since 2000, Luke Elwes has alternated his time in the London studio with long periods spent out on location, making works on paper in combination with the elements that record a fragile shifting world.
