- Luci Pina -

It is nearly the end of October which means it’s that time again where I bring you an artist that I am finding particularly relevant or inspiring currently. As October is Black History Month, for October’s AOTM it was important to me to share an artist whose work highlights the culture and lives of the Black community. As a white woman, I have found learning about the work of Luci Pina and hearing the research and motivation behind her work extremely interesting and educational.

Luci Pina is an artist and illustrator who describes her creative practice as ‘Ordinary Guy Play’. This concept, coined by Pina, refers to her ‘visual, research-based exploration of image, type and drawing’, engaging with collective Black cultures and heritage.

Pina’s approach to her illustration work is highly research based as she utilises documentaries, films and music videos, to gain understanding, develop ideas and begin constructing fonts, colour palettes and compositions to contextualise current cultures. Recent work of Pina’s has focussed on hip/hop music and the rise of Reggae in Britain, and their cultures and communities. This stems from her personal love and connection to the music, but also a desire to research further into a topic of interest. Through her research-based work, Pina subsequently asks fellow artists to explore what they are personally interested in and how they can use creative practice to investigate and communicate that topic. Under this theme, Pina has created multiple professionally commissions for a range of editorial illustrations, event posters, advertising, publication design globally, including Crack Magazine (2021, 2023), DiceFM (2023) and We Present (2021).

The exhaustive approach to her practice has led Pina to create an eclectic portfolio, mixing drawing styles and typography, all documented on her IG in the form of sketchbooks pages and zines. Her work is primarily analog supplemented with some digital media mixed in - where softwares such as Photoshop merely act as a support for her hand drawn and rendered illustrations - yet the hand-drawn appearance gives each drawing a genuine and inviting personality.

Ultimately, Pina’s energetic, and often unpolished work offers a highly visual exploration of topics that she is truly passionate about and that she uses to discover her Black identity and heritage.

Check out her IG here!! https://www.instagram.com/luc.ipina/