Attila Richard Lukacs was born in Alberta in 1962. After spending ten years as an artist living and working in Berlin, he relocated to New York in 1986. He then left New York in 2001 to live and work in Hawaii.
Lukacs is known predominantly for his paintings of male skinheads, primates and American military cadets during the early 1990s. These brutally explicit works shocked and provoked a generation of painters and critics alike.
During his time in Hawaii, Lukacs created a beautiful series of paintings with gold leaf entitled Flowers. The images are lush with decorative patterning and an oriental sensibility.
His 1999 exhibition, Arbor Vitae, dramatically differed in subject to his earlier bodies of work, but ultimately shared a common theme of looking at art historical traditions and references. These elegant paintings provide the viewer with a more introspective and private message.
In 2003, Lukacs returned with a vengeance to earlier themes of homosexuality, social deviance, sexual aggression, punishment and male supremacy in Of Monkeys and Men.
