Mercury Rising

Orlando-based collage artist layering pop-culture fragments and personal history into vivid, mixed-media portraits.

Preferred Mediums

• Collage
  
  
• Mixed Media
  
  

Biography

Louis Lochead is a self-taught collage artist working from Orlando, Florida. Using torn magazines, vintage ephemera, and other found paper, he builds portraits that feel like sidewalk billboards peeled back to reveal hidden memories. Every rip, overlap, and unexpected color shift carries a trace of lived experience, inviting viewers to search for familiar icons and discover new stories beneath.

Raised on a steady diet of comic books, record sleeves, and street art, Louis learned composition by instinct rather than in a classroom. He experiments daily—cutting, re-cutting, and rearranging fragments until a face or scene locks into place. This intuitive method produces work that pulses with energy. Close inspection rewards the eye with subtle references: a 1970s concert stub tucked behind a cheekbone, or half of a retro toy advertisement doubling as a shirt collar.

Although self-taught, Louis studies collage pioneers such as Romare Bearden and Hannah Höch, borrowing their fearless layering while forging his own pop-surreal edge. He photographs each finished piece and sometimes adds digital glazing, blurring the line between analog and screen-based art. The resulting portraits straddle eras—they echo scrapbook nostalgia yet speak to today’s image overload.

Art Box Gallery & Studios champions artists who remix tradition with contemporary flair, making Louis a natural fit for its curatorial vision. His work resonates with visitors who crave authenticity and complexity in equal measure. Whether displayed as small, jewel-like studies or large wall-spanning tapestries, his collages offer the audience a playful puzzle: piece together the fragments and you’ll glimpse the soul behind the face.

Exhibitions & Achievements

Lochead shows in Chicago, Denver and Disney Springs.