By Travis Jensen

Philadelphia artist Alex Lukas' solo show, "And Another Shall Rise to Take Her Place," opens Saturday at San Francisco's White Walls Gallery. The exhibition will consist of more than 30 new mixed-media works on paper, which Lukas says will be a continuation of the disaster-themed drawings he has focused on for several years.

The term postapocalyptic could easily be applied to his drawings of cities in ruins and flooded, burning factories, toppled buildings shrouded with plant life and other catastrophic landscapes. However, Lukas says that's not what his works are meant to represent.

"I fully understand why people say that," said the 27-year-old Rhode Island School of Design graduate, "but the term postapocalyptic implies that something as concrete as an apocalypse has happened. I hope the drawings I make can be much more open-ended, where it isn't clear that one specific thing has happened, but only that something has gone terribly wrong."

His works may appear depressing and evoke feelings of anxiety among viewers, but the title of the show is meant to imply hope.

"I was trying to title the show something that alludes to destruction - in whatever came before has fallen - but also speaks to an idea of an eventual renewal and rebirth," Lukas said. He adds that the idea of renewal is also seen in some of his landscapes, where lush plant life is growing over the ruins.

Lukas is a member of Space 1026, a Philadelphia collective that offers artists a place to both work and exhibit without commercial gallery constraints. In addition to creating visual art, he owns and operates Cantab Publishing, a small zine publishing company that he founded eight years ago. The works in "And Another Shall Rise to Take Her Place" are mixed-media drawings, combining ink, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, spray paint and silk screen on paper.

"I really enjoy the fact that some of these techniques can be controlled very well, while others are a little more unwieldy," said Lukas, adding that for every drawing that he finished, there were three others that he started and gave up on.

For some of the pieces, Lukas said he appropriated printed images of American cities and painted and silk-screened over them. "It's kind of like a collage," he said, "but instead of cutting things out, I just worked around them."

Reception 7-11 p.m. Sat. Through April 3. White Walls Gallery, 835 Larkin St., (415) 931-1500. www.whitewallssf.com, www.alexlukas.com.

- Travis Jensen, 96hours@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page F - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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