LUCA EVANS

LUCA EVANS, Counterpunch

African mahogany, birch, cherry, kiaat, maple and walnut on pine, 40 x 27.8 cm

Luca Evans currently work from a studio in Paarden Eiland, where they utilise a hit-and-miss experimental approach to carpentry and marquetry. Their pop-ish work plays with ideas around language, failure, mishap and humour. Text and object are assembled interchangeably. Luca’s practice employs a cut and paste approach. They work with marquetry, an archaic woodworking method in which thin pieces of wood are assembled like jigsaw puzzles. Although they work predominantly with wood, their practice is intercepted with moments of print, animation and painting.

LUCA EVANS, CRASH, /kɹæʃ/, 2023

african rosewood, birch, kiaat, maple, sapele and walnut on pine, 31 x 49 x 2 cm

Luca Evans is a Cape Town based artist, working primarily with wood, and text. Their work sits in a playful and delicate intersection between tradition and alteration, linguistics and visual art. Sometimes they place the viewer in the position of a phonetician, a branch of linguistics which studies how humans produce and perceive sounds. ‘How do you write sound? How do you signify it? Text and sound bump into each other and spill out. Words work hard. They signify meanings and ideas and actions all at once. Sound words work hard too; it’s not easy signifying sound. Our lexicons are filled with onomatopoeia. Chomp, hiccough, beep, fizz, splash, pop, honk, crack, thud, oomph. I used to work in linguistics. We transcribed sound, rendering it legible. They made an international alphabet of sounds. k/ ræ∫ bæŋ pft. So I started wondering if maybe objects can be sounds. See a mousetrap and hear a snap. This room is filled with sounds. It’s a cacophony, but your head has to fill in the sounds.’

LUCA EVANS, Dialogue

maple, kiaat and sapele on pine, 42 x 35 x 4 cm

Luca Evans is a Cape Town-based artist working primarily with wood and text. Their work sits in a playful and delicate intersection between tradition and alteration, linguistics and visual art. They utilise a hit-and-miss experimental approach to woodwork. The ‘pop-ish’ work plays with ideas around language, failure, mishap, violence, nostalgia and humour. Text and object are assembled interchangeably. Although they work predominantly with wood, their practice is intercepted with moments of print, animation and found objects.

In 2022 they co-founded Under Projects, an artist-run experimental project space where they work as a curator and programmer. They also lecture part-time in Conceptual and Curatorial practice. They have participated in a number of group exhibitions locally and internationally.

LUCA EVANS, Knockoff

African mahogany, birch, cherry, kiaat, maple, meranti, teak, walnut, wenge, yellow wood and aluminium on pine, 26 x 22.4 x 7 cm

Luca Evans currently work from a studio in Paarden Eiland, where they utilise a hit-and-miss experimental approach to carpentry and marquetry. Their pop-ish work plays with ideas around language, failure, mishap and humour. Text and object are assembled interchangeably. Luca’s practice employs a cut and paste approach. They work with marquetry, an archaic woodworking method in which thin pieces of wood are assembled like jigsaw puzzles. Although they work predominantly with wood, their practice is intercepted with moments of print, animation and painting.

LUCA EVANS, Man on train sneezes, whispers "bless me"

cotton rag canvas and house paint, 43.5 x 34.5 cm

Luca Evans currently work from a studio in Paarden Eiland, where they utilise a hit-and-miss experimental approach to carpentry and marquetry. Their pop-ish work plays with ideas around language, failure, mishap and humour. Text and object are assembled interchangeably. Luca’s practice employs a cut and paste approach. They work with marquetry, an archaic woodworking method in which thin pieces of wood are assembled like jigsaw puzzles. Although they work predominantly with wood, their practice is intercepted with moments of print, animation and painting.

LUCA EVANS, Paradise Motel

birch, cherry, kiaat, maple, sapele and walnut on pine, 47 x 35 x 4 cm

Luca Evans is a Cape Town-based artist working primarily with wood and text. Their work sits in a playful and delicate intersection between tradition and alteration, linguistics and visual art. They utilise a hit-and-miss experimental approach to woodwork. The ‘pop-ish’ work plays with ideas around language, failure, mishap, violence, nostalgia and humour. Text and object are assembled interchangeably. Although they work predominantly with wood, their practice is intercepted with moments of print, animation and found objects.

In 2022 they co-founded Under Projects, an artist-run experimental project space where they work as a curator and programmer. They also lecture part-time in Conceptual and Curatorial practice. They have participated in a number of group exhibitions locally and internationally.

LUCA EVANS, VROOOOM /vɹʊm/, 2023

african rosewood, birch, kiaat, maple, sapele and walnut on pine, 21 x 28.5 x 2 cm

Luca Evans is a Cape Town based artist, working primarily with wood, and text. Their work sits in a playful and delicate intersection between tradition and alteration, linguistics and visual art. Sometimes they place the viewer in the position of a phonetician, a branch of linguistics which studies how humans produce and perceive sounds. ‘How do you write sound? How do you signify it? Text and sound bump into each other and spill out. Words work hard. They signify meanings and ideas and actions all at once. Sound words work hard too; it’s not easy signifying sound. Our lexicons are filled with onomatopoeia. Chomp, hiccough, beep, fizz, splash, pop, honk, crack, thud, oomph. I used to work in linguistics. We transcribed sound, rendering it legible. They made an international alphabet of sounds. k/ ræ∫ bæŋ pft. So I started wondering if maybe objects can be sounds. See a mousetrap and hear a snap. This room is filled with sounds. It’s a cacophony, but your head has to fill in the sounds.’