Designer
Travis Louie
Designer
Travis Louie
Travis Louie is a painter and illustrator whose macabre yet beguilingly whimsical portraits depict characters from an imaginary universe inhabited by bizarre and unearthly beings, part human, part animal, part mythological being. Recalling formal photographic portraiture of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the realism of Louie’s meticulously detailed acrylic paintings contrasts sharply with the fantastic nature of his subjects. Influenced by German Expressionist cinema, film noir, Gothic literature, 1950s Sci-Fi, and the Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft, Louie’s work conjures up a black-and-white world of shadowy imagination, hinting at narratives and personal histories just beyond our reach. Louie’s portraits also touch on xenophobia and prejudice towards immigrants and other marginalized groups as he grapples with issues of identity. The works reflect, in his words, a desire for a world in which fear of “the other” might be superseded by curiosity and acceptance of those who are differ
