Luke Sciberras was born in 1975 in Sydney, and graduated in 1997 from the Australia National Art School with a bachelor in Fine Art (Painting). Leading Australian critic John McDonald stated “Luke is one of the significant emerging land- scape artists of his generation”, following a twin exhibition with John Olsen in Sydney. Luke is widely considered Australia’s top landscape artist. He has had close to thirty solo exhibitions in Australia since 1999, and is held in numerous private, pub- lic and corporate collections worldwide. Luke is represented by Tim Olsen Gallery in Sydney. He currently lives and works in Hill End, NSW Australia. 

Luke says of his own work and process at Xucun, “A sense of place, a feeling that can only really be understood and then expressed by spending extended periods of time walking, sitting, paint- ing, resting and keenly studying every nuance of every scene I encounter. To internalize, to empa- thetically draw...” 

“I realize now that I’m often painting a portrait of someone’s home, their place or telling a story of and through a place woven with my own, of- ten new experience.” 

Dark Interior was created during his residency in Xucun, Shanxi in summer 2013. 

Luke was one of the first artist fellows to partici- pate in the 2013 Arts Can Do summer program in Xucun, alongside Sophie Cape to teach children of migrant workers sketching, drawing, painting, portraiture and brush throughout the region.