Luke George (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist creating work that spans performance, installation, craft, curation and rope. Born in lutruwita/Tasmania and based in Naarm/Melbourne, Luke pays their deepest respects to the traditional owners and custodians of the lands which they reside and create, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and the Boon Wurrung Bunurong peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation.
Through their work, Luke examines the dynamics of intimacy and collectivity to create ‘safe spaces’ that allow for care as well as risk. Luke’s artistic practice is informed by queer politics and spaces, whereby people are neither singular nor isolated; bodies of difference can intersect, practice mutual listening, take responsibility for themselves and one another.
Luke sees dance and performance less as spectacle than as reflexive practice, in which people examine themselves and their values through movement and interaction. Luke’s works have persistently nudged ideas of ‘expanded choreographies’ involving co-performers and audiences into communities, queering and involving intercultural, intergenerational and interspecies relationships that recognise the ripples of power and interconnection in our intimate, social, and performative lives, reimagining the ties between humans and the environment and culture we occupy.
Luke creates and performs work through experimental processes with collaborating artists and the public both locally and internationally/culturally. In particular Luke's 10-year collaboration with Singapore/Berlin based artist Daniel Kok has resulted in the creation of 3 performance works that have travelled extensively, as well as developing translocal collaborations and partnerships across the region between themselves, partner institutions and independent artists.
Working across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, Luke has had notable presentations with the Venice Biennale, National Galleries of Melbourne and Singapore, RISING, Dance Massive, Liveworks Festival, Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis, Time Based Art Festival and many more.
Recipient of multiple Green Room Awards for his performances and works, Luke’s work has been regularly supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria and through many commissions, residencies and philanthropic foundations. Over his career Luke has received 4 fellowships including, Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship (2019) and a Chloe Monroe Fellowship (2022).
A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne), Luke has been Co-Artistic Director of Stompin Youth Dance Company (Tasmania), Co-Curator of ‘First Run’ (Melbourne), Artistic Associate of Temperance Hall (Melbourne), and is a studio artist at the Collingwood Yards. Luke is a current studio artist at the Collingwood Yards Arts Precinct