Andrea Luper’s paintings shine a light on the overwhelming parts of everyday life

Andrea Luper describes her paintings as being somewhere between “[William-Adolphe] Bouguereau and Bob’s Burgers”. Often adorning her canvases with nude figures boasting exaggerated limbs, her work is equal parts mocking and admiring the tradition and history of painting itself. Like many of the masters throughout time, all of her pieces begin with a drawing, where she “pours the mess out of my head judgement free, allowing my thoughts to be as wild and ugly as they need to be,” she tells us. But, with a carefully considered palette – sometimes monochromatic with varying shades of red or blue – as well as heavy allusions to our interactions with phones and characters that hide their faces, it can feel as though she is peering into your private life for inspiration.

Although Andrea hints at shame, the human search for authenticity and our dwindling attention spans throughout her work, she is adamant that her figures remain mostly female. “Each painting is like a self portrait of sorts,” she tells us. “It’s like a cathartic exploration of my own lived experience,” she adds. So whether it’s the deeply personal or wider societal issues that she is addressing in her work, Andrea commits to illustrating them with compassion and humour.