By Katie White

In his Chicago studio, Nigerian-born artist Luke Agada gives form to adaptation. His paintings, surrealistic scenes painted in sunburnt hues of rust browns and tans, are elusive and chimerical. In these paintings, figurative beings hover at the threshold of recognizability, tendon-like entities suspended between worlds. Agada admits he’s consumed with visualizing a “Third Space”—a term defined by the Indian writer and scholar Homi Bhabha to describe the place where the two-way influences of the colonizing and the colonized culture meet. These spaces are both physical and psychic, and Agada’s paintings take on the metamorphic ambiguity of memory.

Roberts Projects is pleased to announce representation of Luke Agada, in association with moniquemeloche gallery, Chicago. This announcement follows the gallery's recent solo exhibition with the artist, Between Two Suns, which opened on September 28th and will be on view until November 2nd, 2024.

Interview by Katie Kern

Luke Agada opens his first Los Angeles show at Roberts Projects on Sept. 28. It wasn't exactly a clear path for him to arrive here, growing up in Lagos and studing veterinary medicine before finding his way to painting. Below, CULTURED sat down with the artist to talk about the question of home, certain colors becoming a safe haven, and the painters he turns time and again for inspiration.

Former veterinarian Luke Chidiebube Agada has emerged as a rising star in the art world. Born in Lagos in 1992, Agada’s journey from self-taught artist to acclaimed painter, as captured by artsy.net, has captivated the attention of galleries and collectors alike.

Agada’s unconventional path led him from veterinary medicine to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he completed his MFA in 2023. His bold career shift is now bearing fruit with his first Los Angeles solo exhibition, “Between Two Suns,” opening at Roberts Projects on September 28th.

By Maxwell Rabb

Luke Chidiebube Agada started out as a self-taught artist while pursuing a degree in veterinary medicine, making and selling art to pay bills. Just one year into his veterinary career, Agada quit and enrolled in an MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, from which he graduated in 2023. This abrupt pivot is paying off with his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, “Between Two Suns,” on view at Roberts Projects from September 28th through November 2nd.

Interview by Phyllis Hollis

Nigerian artist living and working in Chicago. Examines themes of globalization, migration and cultural dislocation within the framework of a postcolonial world. MFA in Painting and drawing from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023. Teaching Fellow at the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL. Recently named a 2024 Breakout Artist by NewCity Magazine.