UNCANNY ISLAND
Luke Haines

Exhibition Dates
13th – 19th October 2021

Events
Private View | Wednesday 13th October, 6-9pm
Late Opening | Saturday 16th October, 12-9pm

Uncanny Island is Luke Haines debut art exhibition. Featuring a Fall Xmas Tree and psychedelic visions -in acrylic and oils on canvas – of British wrestlers from the 1970s and early ’80s.

In 2019 I had started painting Christmas tree baubles with the faces of members of the legendary Manchester group The Fall. The baubles were given a way to friends as gifts to decorate their Xmas trees. Wouldn’t it be great to paint all 66 members of the Fall on a bauble, I thought (wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it…?) a big time consuming project that had no home or the hours needed to complete it. 

In 2020 as the country knuckled down in the first few months of lockdown I received an email from the artist Neil McNally asking if I would be interested in exhibiting some of my paintings at Eston Art Centre. My Fall Xmas tree now had a home.

I have been painting wrestlers since 2011 when I recorded an album called ‘Nine And A Half Psychedelic Visions Of British Wrestling From The Late 1970s To The Early ’80s.’ These new canvases painted specially for the ‘Uncanny Island‘ exhibition represent the most fully realised visions of the era of World Of Sport wrestling. Behold, an apocalypse of Half Nelsons and Kamikaze Crashes. “Easy, easy, easy. Don’t touch his ears!”