Luke Cornish (b. 1979) is a Sydney-based handmade stencil artist. A self-described former blue-collar worker from Canberra, under the name of E.L.K he began experimenting with stencil cutting and spray paint in his mid-twenties. Since participating in his first group show at Canberra’s M16 gallery in 2007, he has refined his art, and now uses up to 85 layers of hand-cut acetate to create hyper-real, haunting images. Having held his first solo show, How you like me now bitch? in Canberra in 2010, Cornish has since exhibited throughout Australia and Internationally. He was a finalist in the Metro Art Prize of 2011, won the Australian Stencil Art prize in 2010 and was a finalist in the 2013 Sulman prize. In 2012 became the first artist to be nominated for the Archibald Prize with a portrait created entirely out of stencils. In 2012 Cornish’s short film about the creation of his Archibald portrait of Father Bob Maguire, Me-We, was shortlisted for Tropfest.
