Luke Cornish

Who is Luke Cornish?

Luke Cornish is an Australian stencil artist, also known under the moniker 'E.L.K'. In 2012, Cornish became the first stencil artist to become a finalist in the prestigious Archibald Prize, the largest portrait award in Australia. Previously, he has awarded the Australian Stencil Art Prize in 2010, was a finalist for the 2011 Metro Art Award, and a short film based around his journey of entering the Archibald was nominated in Australia's Tropfest Awards. Other notable achievements include being selected for 2012's Project 5 charity auction, a large involvement in 2011's Outpost Project, receiving the 2013 Chuchill fellowship, and numerous solo and group shows in Australia, the USA, Europe and Asia.

Growing up in Canberra, ACT, Cornish worked blue-collar jobs before picking up stencil art as a hobby in the early-2000s. All of his work is done by hand through cutting out sheets of recycled acetate with a scalpel. Some of Cornish's stencils contain over 80 layers. The subject of his Archibald entry, the infamous ex-priest Father Bob Maguire, contains over 30 layers and was influenced by Cornish's association of him with his own grandfather.