I create sculptures, drawings, and stories based on personal experiences, embodied knowledge, and material research. Abstraction, figuration, and linguistic symbolism guide my artistic process. Humor and a deep consideration of language, material, and language as material are the main throughlines running through my current and past bodies of work. Creating sculptures, drawings, and stories gives me a deep sense of pleasure, curiosity, and delight. I hope to create those same emotions in the mind of the viewer alongside a desire to return and look again.

—Mad Luellen

Mad Luellen (b. 1990) is an interdisciplinary artist whose sculptures, drawings, and paintings
tackle themes of language, personal narrative, and queer/trans experience. Growing up in a family of
florists in Tulsa, Oklahoma forged in him an understanding of sculpture, color theory, feminism, and
storytelling that still influences his work today. After earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The
Cooper Union in 2012, Luellen continued to live in New York City working in high-end lighting design, metal fabrication, and as a tattoo artist, before moving to California to pursue his Master of Fine Arts at Stanford University. In 2020, Luellen moved to Los Angeles to pursue his artistic and teaching career. Luellen has taught at Stanford, Tulsa Community College, the Tulsa Girls Art School, and has been a visiting artist at RISD and MassArt. He has shown his work nationally and internationally and is the recipient of numerous awards including a Cadogan Scholarship from the
San Francisco Foundation and a studio residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France.