Luca Santana (b. 1999, California; lives and works in New York) is a nonbinary painter working with oil, raw canvas, and charcoal to examine decaying histories, control, and devotion. Their practice is influenced by Mexican/Irish-Catholic family archives, transfigurement, animation, and the objectifying gaze. Santana’s work ruminates on one’s capacity to metabolize narratives of sexual violence into opportunities for devotion and rapture.
Santana holds a BA in Studio Arts from Bard College, NY, and studied at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, DE. Their work has been exhibited at SFA Projects, New York, NY; Russell Janis Projects, Brooklyn, NY; Bard College Exhibition Center, Red Hook, NY; Avery Arts Center, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA; Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY; and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA. Santana also works as a graphic designer. Their practice is rooted in conceptual exploration, technical craft, and experimentation. Their work includes websites, design systems, and visual identities.
Art Direction
Brand Identity + Strategy
Design Systems
Drawing
Graphic Design
Installation
Motion Design
Painting
Research
UI/UX Design
Visual Storytelling
Visual + Verbal Identity
Web Design
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Animate
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Media Encoder
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Premiere Pro
Blender
Cargo
Figma
HTML
Miro
Squarespace
WordPress
Tumblr