Lukas Easton ( He/Him )

My work explores subject matter that popular culture has become numb to. The work takes the viewer beyond the expected and causes a moment of clarity. This moment offers a chance to consider what we value and reveals what we have decided to leave out of our moral equation in the attempt to simplify and compartmentalize the contradictions of life.

I engage with ideas of collective entanglement by using physical representations of time, to create an expanded perspective from which to reflect on the complexities of the world we live in.

The ceramic vessel has been central to my practice for many years. I am now exploring sculpture, space, and video. What remains consistent in my work is a use of narrative across surface and form. Whether it's carved imagery, cast animals or monumental sculpture, I place singular objects together to create conversation and relationships through their proximity. The space allowed by proximity gives the viewer room to layer their own experiences and conceptions with my work.

Use of Animals in My Work

Growing up in rural Maine and Alaska offered an intimate connection with nature. Much of what I have learned about life came through my experiences with animals. I grew up in a subsistence household where gardening, hunting, and fishing for food were a part of our daily life. At home I watched and participated in the life and death of our chickens from hatching under their mothers’ warm feathers, to our freezers where they would provide valuable meat through the winter. This direct and intentional participation with the cycle of life, at home, in the woods, and on the water required close and astute observation of animal behavior, as well as feelings of deep connection and gratitude. All of which have informed who I am and how I relate to the world. The wild animal has a lifespan, behaviors and physical characteristics that are familiar to humans. We empathize with the suffering as well as the delight of animals. The non-human difference allows us to explore the human experience with some distance. My work offers the exploration of often disturbing and confronting topics that are much more accessible and relatable to the human experience when explored through the animal body.

Lukas Easton received an MFA in ceramics at the NYSCC at Alfred University, in the spring of 2021. He received his BFA in ceramics, from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2017. In 2018, Easton completed a Post-Baccalaureate Program in ceramics at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York. After returning from a three-month residency at Jenggala Keramik in Bali where he designed commercial tableware, he spent a semester teaching as adjunct faculty at RIT before attending graduate school at Alfred. In 2020 Easton was selected as a Ceramics Monthly emerging artist and received first place as a graduate student in the NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition. Additionally, Easton received honorable mention in the 2020 International Sculpture Center’s, Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards. Easton is currently a long-term resident artist at The Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge Montana.