LUKE creates scenes, images, portraits and environments out of fabric and thread. Drawing from a tradition of meditative American portraiture, with influences ranging from Chuck Close to Kehinde Wiley, Haynes depicts the images with which we find comfort, constructed within the traditional quilting process, layering found cloth pieces, inscribed by thread. With roots in the American South, these quilts respond to American art traditions as well as the emerging culture of the contemporary craft movement. With his research into fine art, craft history and an architectural education, his work lies within the juncture between form and function, art and craft, quilt tradition and contemporary design culture.
LUKE Haynes was born in Durango, Colorado. Growing up across the Southeast, he spent time at twelve schools in seven states, which planted the seeds for a deep interest in the culture of the American South. He studied fine arts at North Carolina School for the Arts, and went on to study architecture at Cooper Union, in New York. He returned to North Carolina to work as an architect, while pursuing art on the side. But his quilts began to gain more press and generate more interest than his work in the architectural office and he chose to pursue that passion full time. He now lives and works in Seattle. His quilts are slated to be included in two upcoming publications on contemporary American quilting, and will be featured in several large scale exhibitions across the country.
