LeRone Wilson

LeRone Wilson is best known for what he calls his “Sculpted Encaustic Paintings,” a series of wall-mounted relief sculptures. To create these compositions, Wilson combines melted beeswax, resin, carnauba, and pigment, before applying the mixture to his canvas using self-designed palette knives. After applying several layers, Wilson fuses the wax to the surface with heat. The works can take up to two weeks to cool, and the final reliefs are between 1 and 4 inches thick. Though they are abstract, Wilson sees in his works a resemblance to metal—particularly rust, polished bronze, brass, and welded surfaces. He uses his medium, he has said, to find the “perfection that an artifact achieves when it is no longer possible to improve it by subtraction…Every component, every detail and every function has been reduced to condensed to the essential.”