ARTIST STATEMENT
As an oil painter, my practice is about engaging more intimately with the world around me. Scrolling through social media media, it’s easy to get lost in a world of fleeting, depersonalized images—my artistic practice serves as a personal counterpoint to this instantaneous consumption of images. Through spending hours closely observing an object, person, plant, or landscape, I am able to build a connection with both my subject and the physical art I create. Through this process, I aim to highlight aspects of life that may seem insignificant or overlooked, inviting a deeper appreciation of the mundane.

In my process, I’ve intentionally moved away from relying on screens or photographs as references. Instead, for most of my work, I’ve focused on painting directly from life which has allowed my forms to emerge more organically. Looking at my work, I hope the viewer feels a sense of connection—whether it’s to a feeling or simply to the appreciation of an everyday object like a flower on a table. It is this sense of connection that underpins my entire artistic practice.

ARTIST BIO
Lucas Bernard was FRANK Gallery’s featured emerging artist from 2024-25. Although he received no formal training in studio art, his first explorations in oil paint began as a middle-schooler. Inspired by paintings he saw hanging in the MET near his home in New York, he dedicated himself to learning from the skill of those old masters. Working from references in museum catalogues, he began copying paintings by artists like Rembrandt, Morisot, and Sargent. His work soon evolved, however, to reflect his own multi-cultural background, inspired by the vibrant colors, diverse subjects, and different artistic languages he absorbed from his time living in Malawi, the Cayman Islands, and now the United States.