About

LUAP’s practice explores how psychological states shaped by memory, personal history and internal contradiction can be made visible through symbolic image-making. At its centre is a recurring figure: The Pink Bear. Bold and surreal, the character functions as both alter ego and emotional cipher — a tool for investigating identity, visibility and vulnerability. It reflects the tension between how we are seen and what we carry beneath the surface.

The process begins in real environments. LUAP photographs The Pink Bear in remote or physically demanding locations such as mountains, forests, deserts and abandoned buildings. These settings are chosen for their visual impact but also for the solitude, dislocation and endurance they demand. The work incorporates a performative element, with the artist placing himself — inside the costume — into often uncomfortable conditions. The images are captured without digital manipulation and later serve as references for large-scale Oil Paintings.

These Paintings are executed entirely by hand using traditional methods. They do not reproduce the Photographs but reimagine them through material, gesture and surface. A heightened realism is layered with expressive mark-making, allowing clarity to dissolve into abstraction. Each Painting becomes a psychological terrain where memory, dream and emotional states coexist — from the texture of childhood wallpaper to fleeting moods and subconscious imagery.

While playful in appearance, the work is underpinned by a quiet seriousness. The Pink Bear resists fixed interpretation: it is childlike but not childish, familiar yet estranged. It invites projection, acting as both performer and witness, archetype and mask. LUAP avoids narrative closure, instead creating a space for ambiguity, reflection and internal contradiction.

The work draws on the visual languages of Pop Art, Staged Photography and Contemporary Realism, but reconfigures these through a deeply personal lens. Grounded in lived experience and informed by psychological research, the Practice also registers a sensitivity to the natural world and the pressures of modern selfhood. The aim is not to offer answers, but to hold space for vulnerability, contradiction and the shared, often unseen dimensions of being human.

Biography

LUAP (Paul Robinson) is a British multidisciplinary artist working across Painting, Photography, Installation and Performance. Born in Grimsby in 1982 and based in London, he is internationally recognised for a body of work centred on The Pink Bear — a costumed figure used to explore contemporary questions of identity, visibility and psychological presence.

LUAP’s work has been exhibited at galleries, museums and art fairs across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia, and is held in numerous private and institutional collections. Alongside his studio Practice, he supports mental health awareness and creative access initiatives. In 2024, he launched The Pink Bear Scholarship — a one-off €250,000 award created to support 17 emerging artists facing barriers to entry in the arts. These commitments reflect LUAP’s belief in art as a vehicle for connection, care and social change.

Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson - In Mongolia
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson in Mongolia
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson - An artist stands in front of two large paintings of pink teddy bears on a gallery wall, with art supplies and paint splatters on the floor.
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson standing on rocks overlooking a mountain lake with snow-capped peaks in the distance.
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson - Street at night with a pink and white spiral mural of a teddy bear holding a skull, streetlights, cars, and a person passing by.
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
A man in a pink suit and black bow tie lying on a pile of pink teddy bears.
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson - Artist sitting on the floor in front of a colorful painting of a person swimming in a pool with three pink teddy bears in the background, on a white wall in an art studio.
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson
Artist LUAP - Paul Robinson