THE SCRAPERMAKER
The artist behind Scraperscapes
For Adrian Luces, Scraperscapes began with a lifelong fascination with architecture, cities and the way places become part of our memory.
Born in Trinidad and Tobago and now based in Toronto, Adrian has spent much of his creative life exploring different forms of expression, from music and performance to photography and visual art.
Scraperscapes brings those creative instincts together in a distinctive visual language built around architecture, colour, perspective and place.
THE BEGINNING OF SCRAPERSCAPES
The idea behind Scraperscapes emerged almost by accident. While working on a television series filmed inside one of Toronto’s office towers, Adrian became fascinated by the city unfolding beyond the windows, its architecture, reflections and layers of buildings stretching across the skyline.
He began photographing what he saw, capturing not simply individual buildings, but the relationships between them. In one photograph, Adrian later discovered his own reflection embedded almost invisibly within the composition.
That unexpected image became a turning point. It suggested that a photograph of a place could hold more than architecture, it could contain perspective, experience and even the presence of the person seeing it.
From that discovery came the beginnings of Scraperscapes and a process Adrian would eventually call “Scaping.”
THE ART OF SCAPING
Scaping is Adrian’s term for the process of transforming original photography into the layered visual language of Scraperscapes.
The process begins with a photograph, but the finished work is not simply a digitally altered image. Photographs are layered, fragmented, manipulated and reconstructed as Adrian experiments with colour, texture, form and perspective.
There is no fixed formula. Each work evolves through experimentation until the familiar begins to feel different, revealing something of the energy, character and emotional resonance Adrian associates with the place.
The result sits somewhere between photography and painting: a familiar place reconsidered through memory, imagination and perspective.
PLACE. MEMORY. PERSPECTIVE.
A Scraperscape is not simply a record of what a place looks like. It is an interpretation of how a place feels.
Cities, buildings and landscapes become part of our personal histories. We remember where we stood, who we were with, what happened there and how a place made us feel.
Through colour, layering and shifting perspective, Adrian explores that relationship between the physical world and the memories we attach to it, transforming familiar places into something more personal, emotional and unexpected.
BEYOND THE STUDIO
What began as a personal exploration of architecture and place has grown into work exhibited, commissioned and collected in a variety of settings.
In 2024, Adrian was commissioned by Toronto’s prestigious National Club to create Imprimis 150, commemorating the Club’s 150th anniversary and celebrating its place within the history and architecture of the city.
His SkiScapes collection has taken Scraperscapes to Aspen, Colorado, where the work has been represented by Royal Street Fine Art. Aspen Portrait, one of the collection’s signature works, sold there for US$5,000.
Scraperscapes have also been created as private commissions, transforming places of personal significance into works designed specifically for the people and spaces that will become their home.
From galleries and institutional commissions to private collections, each setting extends the original idea behind Scraperscapes: that our connection to place can be transformed into something enduring.
Interested in an Scrapercapes work?
Enquire about an available work, sizing and presentation options, or discuss a commissioned Scraperscape inspired by an American city or place that holds special meaning for you.
