AFTER GRADUATING FROM EDINBORO IN 1986, international painter and sculptor Emil Lukas spent eight years in New York and Europe before settling down in Stockertown, Pa., located in the Lehigh Valley just minutes from Lafayette.

His work has appeared in more than two dozen solo exhibitions since 1985, including, in the last two years, shows in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Paris, Bologna, and Kšln. His art has also been included in numerous two-person and group exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world, and has been reviewed in many newspapers, magazines, and journals worldwide.

In a 2000 Lafayette exhibition, "Marks That Make Themselves," Lukas chose works representing one area of interest for the artist—using a diverse range of objects like plaster, potato chips, fish heads, and house flies to produce spontaneously crafted marks in paintings and sculptures.

"The studio is a living system and I merely try to nurture and control how it functions," he says. "Instead of making paintings and sculptures, I feel closer to the act of using characters. These characters are my own self-made language, system, alphabet, and personal vocabulary."

Lukas worked with students last spring to create a primitive printing press with cement blocks. They put paper between each block and left the structure ouside for three weeks. The stains and marks left on the paper created drawings.

"Mr. Lukas's works are philosophically engaging because they call attention to gaps in ordinary thinking," says reviewer Ken Johnson in The New York Times.