Luke Heimbigner makes cast metal sculptures using the forms of forgotten and discarded items. Luke’s grandfather may have hoped to make an engineer of young Luke by bringing him old lawnmower engines to take apart and rebuild; instead, it was Luke’s artistic imagination that was sparked by the functional beauty of those machines. In 2006 he graduated from the University of Montana at Missoula with a BFA in sculpture and a minor in media arts. In 2007 he moved to Oakland, having accepted a position as metal chaser at Artworks Foundry in Berkeley.
Luke was a captain on the foundry pour crew, helped with mold making and assisted with sculpture installation. At Artworks he met the late Steven De Staebler and worked closely with him as an assistant in the creation of the bronze sculpture for which De Staebler is internationally famous. In 2015 Luke left the foundry to pursue his personal work and take on independent jobs. Alongside De Staebler, Heimbigner numbers Richard Serra and Martin Puryear among the sculptors whose work he admires.
