Unfold, Fragment and Disperse explores how non-representational drawing and painting processes can capture the physical movements, gestures and decisions of the artist. Through works on paper and board, Ariana Luca explores how the process of constructing an abstract composition can be captured and reflected within the surfaces of the works themselves. In this series, each work is created without a preconceived idea of the finished composition. After the first few marks are made, the works begin to unfold slowly through an accumulation of both controlled and spontaneous gestures. Each new compositional decision is informed by the history of past gestures that exist within the surface of the work. The resulting drawings and paintings contain layers of varying intentionality, as spontaneous, absent-minded mark-making sits alongside carefully constructed abstract forms and shapes. Painted gestures, pencil lines and pastel smudges act as imprints of the artist’s physical movements, revealing the slow process of constructing an abstract composition. Within Luca’s practice, each drawing sits amongst a series of iterations. Each work informs the next, as shapes and patterns that emerged in one drawing are repeated and recomposed throughout following works. These repeating gestures form part of a continually evolving abstract language, which grows and morphs throughout each new series of works.

Ariana Luca is an emerging artist from Melbourne. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree from RMIT University, which she completed in 2017. Luca has recently held solo exhibitions at Brunswick St Gallery in Melbourne and Sawtooth ARI Gallery in Launceston. She works primarily in drawing and painting, exploring non-representational and abstract drawing processes.