About

Dominic Brown is a Dutch mixed-media artist exploring the intersection of ancient culture, the human body, movement and evolving technology. Drawing forms the foundation of his practice, but rarely its boundary. His works often begin by hand, through pencil, ink or paint, before being digitally transformed and translated into new materials and physical forms. By combining traditional craftsmanship with contemporary technologies, Brown creates a visual language in which the handmade and the digital continuously influence one another. Ancient civilizations, mythology and archaeology have been recurring sources of fascination throughout his life. Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Mayan and other ancient cultures appear throughout his work, not as historical references alone, but as starting points for imagining new worlds. Mythological figures and symbols are placed alongside elements of science, space, technology and contemporary life, connecting humanity's earliest stories with ideas about its future. Movement is equally central to his work. His fascination with dance, music and the energy that emerges when people move together has strongly influenced the way he approaches the human body. As both a DJ and visual artist, Brown is interested in moments when individual bodies become connected through rhythm, movement and shared experience. Experimentation plays an important role in his practice. Photography, digital image-making, innovative printing techniques, textiles, relief, sculpture, light and emerging technologies allow an image to move beyond the traditional surface. Increasingly, Brown is exploring how his two-dimensional visual world can become physical: transforming drawings and digital compositions into sculptural objects, architectural interventions and immersive environments. His work frequently brings seemingly opposing worlds together: ancient and futuristic, physical and digital, instinct and technology, permanence and movement. Rather than seeing technology as a replacement for human creativity, Brown uses it as an extension of the hand, allowing an original drawing, gesture or idea to evolve into forms that would previously have been impossible to create. At the centre of this practice remains a fascination with humanity itself: our bodies, our stories, our desire to create, and the traces we leave behind. His work asks what remains fundamentally human as the world around us continues to evolve.

How he works

Every work begins with pencil sketches in a sketchbook. The drawings are scanned and refined on the computer into layered, colourful compositions, then printed on canvas, Dibond® or wood, often in a small edition. After that the handwork starts again: texture gel, coloured markers, paint, glitter and gold leaf make every piece unique.

“I start with a drawing on thick paper, with pencil, markers, wax pastels and watercolour. I scan it in high resolution and keep working on it on the computer, often combining new drawings with older ones. The file is printed on canvas and I paint over it, which makes each work unique.”

What art is to him

“To me, art is a language: a figurative language that can be read by everyone, regardless of their age, culture or the moment in time. The biggest compliment for me is when people point at their belly and say they feel something.”

Read the full interview “That magic feeling” on Online Gallery, and see his murals and commissions.