"Blue" by LeRone Wilson

LeRone Wilson (1968) is a sculptor and painter living and working in New York. His primary medium is encaustic, the oldest form of painting, used by the ancient Egyptians to fuse hieroglyphics. His sculpted encaustic paintings explore the complexities of the historical and cultural inferences of spirituality, history and identity.

His work represents a medley of different textures that stimulate the senses, making the art not just a thing of beauty to be admired from a distance, but something we can feel connected to through the expression of touch.  It’s a way of revealing an image without actually being able to control it, letting it come about itself.

The work varies in shapes with 1 to 4 inches of wax built up on the surface.  Their elegant abstract details invoke minimalist historical references that are surprisingly compelling.  The results are unrecognizable surfaces that encourage kind of curiosity as to their function as paintings.

Minimalism can be defined as the perfection that an artifact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction.  This is the quality LeRone wants to achieve with the texture of the encaustic. Every component, every detail and every function has been reduced or condensed to the essential.  The simplicity of his work explores the possibility of working creatively without disrupting the purity of the material.

A finalist for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and winner of Best in Show for the Carroll Harris Sims Award, his works have also appeared in live auctions and shows at Phillips DePury and reside in the Museum of Biblical Art in New York and the African American Museum in Dallas.