David Brown is a Toronto-based encaustic artist whose wall sculptures explore the human figure, urban environments, and layered memory through a unique blend of drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. A graduate of OCAD University, Brown’s 30+ year career spans both design and fine art, and his work reflects a deep engagement with material, process, and place.
Using encaustic wax, monotype printing, and found materials, Brown creates multilayered compositions that hover between two and three dimensions. His vibrant color palettes, often hidden on the reverse of folded or tessellated forms, emit a subtle glow against the wall, evoking a warmth that suggests both vulnerability and resilience. The human form remains central, yet abstracted, acting as both subject and architecture within the work.
Brown’s most recent bodies of work reflect on how people live in and reshape the natural landscape, drawing influence from the Niagara Escarpment region. Each piece is shaped by observation, memory, and emotional resonance, making space for viewers to bring their own interpretations.
His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Canada and the United States, and is part of several public and private collections. Recent commissions include large-scale public art installations in Toronto’s financial district. Brown continues to evolve his practice through research-driven projects that push the boundaries of traditional encaustic methods.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I approach painting like a builder, using wax, spray paint, and print techniques to construct a multi-layered, multi-sensory experience. I am interested in observing, collecting, and reflecting on the visual cacophony of metropolitan life.
Encaustic paint has become an integral part of my process. Beeswax is an organic material with a strong personality. The range of qualities, surfaces, and textures it can yield is unmatched by any other painting material. The wax and I have formed a partnership; it tells me where and how to proceed as I guide and tease the molten medium.
In my paintings, layers of wax are painstakingly piled on top of acrylic washes, oil, and spray paints. Surface depth accumulates by weaving organic and geometric shapes, rendered in positive and negative forms, through different levels. The final result is a thin sculpture with fragments of long-forgotten messages resonating through.
In contrast, my monotype print series is an immediate exploration of the wax’s character. In this case, there is a visceral response when I bring a brick of wax onto a heated plate. The sensual flow of the medium tracks the movement of my hand and creates an illusion of three dimensions. Instead of adding layers, I remove the medium with silicon tools, making lines and textures to develop the compositions.
My rhythmical wall sculptures are made from Fluted fibre board with tessellation folds. The energetic geometric structures are coated with a heavily textured Encaustic front surface and acrylic paint on the back to add an enchanted warm glow. The undulating angles and geometric forms twist and bend the animated and lyrical sculptures.
I think of my work as internalized landscapes that reflect the experience of living in Canada’s largest urban center — an encapsulation of all the daily sensory bombardments of the city. I strive to represent time and space, sight and sound, in a quiet loudness.