Graphic Art Design's

Art & Design:

But there are great graphic artists who make nuanced, evocative art. Luba Lukova's posters and illustrations have punch, and they are laced with such feeling that they often merit a second look. Her work doesn't wrestle with the classic riddles of high art. It is, as graphic art should be, strong and pithy but its messages are not always simple. The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University has mounted two Lukova exhibits, one in its main gallery on the Beacon Street campus, the other at Lesley's University Hall in Porter Square.

Lukova grew up in Bulgaria under a totalitarian regime and came to the United States in 1991. She is deeply attuned to human rights issues. The centerpiece of the first show is a series of social justice posters, wittily suspended from four umbrella-like structures that echo the image in Lukova's health care poster of an umbrella with ribs but no covering. That's a simple indictment of US health care policy. Her "Peace" poster is richer: It shows a dove comprised of the silhouettes of soldiers, missiles, and bomb blasts. This is an artist willing to convey complexity in polarizing issues.

Her images are deceptively simple: black-and-white, blocky, pared down, often with another color as background. Illustrations she has made for The New York Times hang around the social justice installation. Since no context is provided, we must take these provocative pieces for themselves. They read like fables. In one, a giant finger depresses the nozzle of a spray can, taking out three tiny cupids.

The Cambridge exhibit includes several works Lukova made for the book "Remembering the Women: Women's Stories From Scripture for Sundays and Festivals." I've never seen such a wonderfully graphic nativity scene: Lukova depicts Mary's spread-eagle legs pointing upward, the umbilical cord intact between her and the squawling Jesus at the top of the piece. These illustrations recall printmaker Leonard Baskin's gritty depictions of biblical figures; both artists cross the divide between fine and graphic art.