Andrew Loughnane was born in 1974 in Ft. Thomas, Ky. and earned a bachelor of arts in Germanic studies from Indiana University Bloomington in 2000. His early art-making explored the conventional media of drawing, painting, photography and sculpture, but after the radical years he spent as a renegade skateboarder in northern Kentucky and on the road in various U.S. destinations, his work leaned toward reconfigured ready-mades, rampant street performances and cross-disciplinary processes.

A two-year stint in Germany as a foreign exchange student in philosophy and art history at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich opened up the world stage for more conceptual, multimedia and new genre pieces that provoke and engage a wide public, in both the gallery and street setting. blaue invasion, a major project in 2000, located hundreds of blue plastic Nazi toy soldiers around Munich in a mock occupation of the city. As with most Loughnane projects, the piece was highly organized—down to the official paperwork requesting the German government’s permission to use advertisement space to display posters containing imagery of the same soldiers in large format. The Mossad took notice.

With public installations that invite viewer participation and blur the distinction between art and everyday activities, Loughnane’s “performic exercises” seek to make art equally accessible to all segments of the general public. Often inspired by devilish wordplay and sardonic commentary on the conundrum of romantic relationships, he has created several renowned short- and long-term works including: hayride, courtship, lookalike! and sticky wicket—the latter being a site-specific installation at the Weston Art Gallery (see sticky wicket page for more details) that was conceived as an indoor croquet field, complete with artificial grass, in the middle of the downtown business district. Everything is grist for his voracious art mill, from scholarly discourses to jail time and his totaled sedan.

Though his “rebellious, Jackson Pollock-inspired life” earned him the title Best Arts Rebel in Cincinnati (CityBeat, 2004), Loughnane is also a freelance writer whose past work experience includes publishing, film and television in both Europe and the United States. He currently resides in Berlin.

Weston Art Gallery
Cincinnati, Ohio