Born in Edmonton, AB in 1962, Attila Richard Lukacs moved to Vancouver in 1981 where, in 1985, he graduated from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. In 1986 he was awarded the Studio Residency Program, Kunstlerhaus Bethanian, in Berlin. After spending ten years living and working in Berlin, he relocated to New York. He left New York in 2001 to live and work in Hawaii. He currently lives and works in Vancouver. Lukacs is known predominantly for his paintings of male skinheads, primates and American military cadets during the early
1990s, which frequently reference the historical compositions, both Western and Eastern. These brutally explicit works shocked
and provoked a generation of painters and critics alike. After a tumultuous journey through early success, to bad boy outcast in New York, Lukacs moved to Maui for several years, where he continues to spend several months of the year. Maui offered him solitude from the art world and a passage out of chaos and back into a solid studio practice. A deep commune with this landscape is keenly felt.