Andrew
Loughnane was born February 17th, 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, lookalike!, art gallery
and sticky wicket—the latter being a site-specific
installation at the Weston Art Gallery 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 past “rebellious, Jackson Pollock-inspired life”
once earned him the title Best Arts Rebel in Cincinnati (CityBeat,
2004), Loughnane is also an Irish passport holder and freelance
writer whose past work experience includes publishing, film
and television in both Europe and the United States.
Weston
Art Gallery
Cincinnati, Ohio
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