Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 11

Ken Luce
"Drive Bye..." Contemporary Neutral Toned Social Commentary Collage Painting

1995

$2,800
£2,128.77
€2,456.68
CA$3,919.25
A$4,388.51
CHF 2,289.71
MX$53,470.80
NOK 29,054.74
SEK 27,623.33
DKK 18,337.52
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Contemporary neutral toned social commentary collage by Texas based artist Ken Luce. Created using modified shooting range targets after experiencing an armed robbery, the work features a figure pointing a gun at another person while driving. Currently unframed, but options are available. Artist Biography: In 1984 Ken Luce made his first trip to New York. On that trip he saw many things, but none more important than “Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern” at the Museum of Modern Art. Inspired by this iconic exhibition, he returned to his studio on the Houston Ship Channel and began making found object sculptures. By 1986, Luce had built a new studio and started producing a surge of new art, particularly a body of collage works on 60x40 Arches paper. Starting with two snowmen works, both titled “Van Gogh on acid,” the snowman became a recurring theme for Luce and a metaphor in his work for a white man in the late 20th century. These pieces eventually expanded to include the black and tan shooting targets from which the title of the show is derived. Always an outdoorsman, Luce was at a shooting range in South Houston one day practicing with his .38 snub nose revolver, shooting what he called full body targets. Having recently been involved in an armed robbery and having a .357 pointed at his face at an infamous ice house along the ship channel, he became enamored with them and took 10 home. Once these 9 collages were finished, Luce put them in a portfolio and stored them under his large work table for over thirty years. He only recently rediscovered them after a studio visit with Alison De Lima Green, the Modern Curator at the MFAH. Upon rediscovery, he felt them to be prescient of current discussions around gun violence. As Eugene Binder described, “Luce’s work breaks down preconceived barriers with wit and humor, sometimes subtle, sometimes not. It’s a strategy that enables him to take his work beyond judgment, predefined boundaries, engaging with the viewer, while sharing the importance of enjoyment he derives in making each object unmistakably his own.”
  • Creator:
    Ken Luce
  • Creation Year:
    1995
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 61 in (154.94 cm)Width: 41 in (104.14 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Houston, TX
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: CA341.2024.0715.60231stDibs: LU551316087802

More From This Seller

View All
"Drop It..." Contemporary Neutral Toned Social Commentary Collage Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Contemporary neutral toned social commentary collage by Texas based artist Ken Luce. Created using modified shooting range targets after experiencing an armed robbery, the work feat...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

“Bang Bang, Beep Beep” Abstract Contemporary Figurative Cowboy Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Figurative contemporary painting by Houston, TX artist Tra' Slaughter. The painting features two figures wearing cowboy hats set against a light tan background. Signed in the front l...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"11:59" Contemporary Surrealist Figurative Painting
By Scott Woodard
Located in Houston, TX
Surrealist painting with a mummified figure and three sentinels looking upon the mummified figure. The work is framed in a wooden frame. The canvas is signed and dated by the artist ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

"Marked" Brown-Toned Monochromatic Contemporary Surrealist Painting
By Scott Woodard
Located in Houston, TX
Brown-toned abstract figurative painting by Houston, TX artist Scott Woodard. The painting depicts a man wearing a brown garment seated against a gray background. Signed by the artis...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

"De Sovediencia III" Contemporary Abstract Figurative Surrealist Match Painting
Located in Houston, TX
Figurative surrealist oil painting by Cuban artist Douglas Perez Castro. This painting depicts a scene with several figures with matches as heads ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Luck of the Draw" Gray and Red Abstract Figurative Painting
By Paul Reeves
Located in Houston, TX
Gray, red, yellow, and black abstract figurative painting by Houston, TX artist and Reeves Art + Design owner Paul Reeves. This painting depicts multiple faces against a background o...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

You May Also Like

Please exit, monoprint collage politics hand, figurative
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This monoprint transfer painting on paper bridges single printmaking and painting, with collage. The color palette is monochromatic. Thematically it is a figurative work referencing ...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Monoprint

Hey Please Don't Shoot - Abstract Figurative Street Art Painting by Gary John
By Gary John
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Gary John's pop-street artworks have a whimsical, yet exciting and bold quality inspired by classic cartoon and comic book characters. Blending pop sensibilities with a roughened fau...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic

"Untitled, " Acrylic and Paper Collage on Canvas
Located in Houston, TX
This work was one of Long’s earliest compositions as an artist. Even earlier in his artistic career, Long was interested in exploring the intersection of various media, branching out into new innovative spaces. This work demonstrates the technique and forms at play that have since germinated into Long’s signature style. Bert L. Long Jr., was self-taught artist, was born in 1940 in Texas, grew up the Houston’s historic Fifth Ward and received his formal education from UCLA. Following a career as a successful master chef, Long decided to devote himself entirely to art in the late 1970’s. He began to explore folk art and assemblage to create a unique body of work, attracting the attention of Jim Harithas, then Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and artists John Alexander, Salvatore Scarpitta and James Surls. His life spanned an era of radical change in the American social climate, the influence of which can be seen clearly in his work. Long’s paintings and sculptures incorporate a high level of skill and sophisticated knowledge of art history, along with complex philosophical and social issues.  Long describes the philosophy behind his work as "a quest to help people diagnose their inner self," believing his art to be "the vehicle to help facilitate the process." “As artists we have the obligation to provide the world with art which communicates as truth. I believe that art has the power to heal our souls of their afflictions. I try to create art which helps to diagnose the prevalent conditions within our societies, hopefully providing an insightfulness which will help us all become brothers and sisters united in equality and compassion”                                       - Bert L. Long, Jr. The late Peter Marzio, former Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, said of Bert Long during the major retrospective of Long’s work at the museum: “Bert Long does not avert his gaze from that which is painful, but as [his artworks] testify, he also brings a spirit of joy and redemption to his art. We can all learn from this great artist.” Over Long’s 33-year career as a painter, sculptor, and photographer, he had several solo exhibitions at respected museums and was awarded many significant awards including the National Endowment for the Arts Grant in 1987 and the prestigious international Prix de Rome fellowship in 1990. Other notable awards of Long’s include the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts Artist of the Year Award in 2009, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Assistance Grant in 1997, the Houston Art League Texas Artist of the Year in 1990, the NEA Visual Artists Fellowship Grant, 1987 and the Bemis Foundation Residency in 1998. His work can be seen in over 100 private and public collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, the El Paso Museum of Art, and the Instituto de Bachillerato in Spain. With a recent solo exhibition at the Houston Museum of African American Culture and an exhibition overseas which is pending featuring his work, plus interest from several national museums, Bert L. Long Jr. continues to be recognized as an important African American artist throughout Texas, nationally and internationally. Bert L. Long, Jr. "Untitled" 1977 Acrylic and Paper Collage on Canvas...
Category

1970s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Street Art Mixed Media Painting "Bang" Graffiti Style California Latino Artist
By Aldo Valdez
Located in Surfside, FL
Aldo Valdez is a San Francisco California based artist. He worked as Head Preparator at Paul Thiebaud Gallery and before that at Gagosian Gallery. These are earlier, one of a kind, m...
Category

Early 2000s Street Art Figurative Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic, Screen

Human Target 2, Mixed Media Painting by Anatol Pacanowski
By Anatol Pacanowski
Located in Long Island City, NY
Human Target 2 Anatol Pacanowski, (1945) Date: 1981 Acrylic, Airbrush and Collaged Media on Canvas, Signed and Dated right Size: 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6...
Category

1980s Conceptual Mixed Media

Materials

Canvas, Paper, Acrylic

trying4u03
By Carlton Scott Sturgill
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: paint chip sample mosaic on panel Born in 1971 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Carlton Scott Sturgill received his Masters of Arts (Fine Art) from London’s Chelsea Collage of Art in De...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media