For Queensland-based artist Shane Drinkwater, self-imposed restrictions provide a key starting point for works he creates in ink, pen, acrylic, and collage—always in a square format measuring about 50 by 50 centimeters. Arrows, crosses, dots, and numbers build linear elements and patterns, while primary colors provide the foundation for the occasional green or gradient.

Drawing on a lifelong love for maps, ciphers, and astronomical charts, Drinkwater continues to explore the possibilities of fictional cosmic networks (previously). In some pieces, concentric circles resemble diagrams of the Solar System, while in others, references to comets or esoteric systems suggest the imaginary workings of atomic phenomena or alchemical experiments.

Drinkwater’s work was recently included in the book Elements: Chaos, Order and the Five Elemental Forces, published by Thames & Hudson. He is currently preparing work for art fairs this fall in Copenhagen and Paris, along with a group show at Gagné Contemporary in Toronto. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.