Zachary Armstrong’s Encaustic House is an all-enveloping installation. It is a meditation on the American childhood in all of its wonder, isolation, hope and trauma. At the center of this spatial experience is a life-sized house whose roof, walls, ceilings and floors are made up of large, bolted together encaustic (pigmented wax medium in canvas) paintings. The exterior of the house is a direct 3-dimensional rendering of a doll house thar was a small, quiet but consistent presence in Armstrong’s childhood. The Interior paintings/walls of the house are complex, chaotic visual experiences that are dense with art historical references, personal anecdotes, collective cultural memory and dark and humorous contemporary Americana.

Overall, the installation is arranged like a display at the French art salons in the 17th-20th century: with a massive quantity of works. For Armstrong there is irony and conflict in today’s society where goods are regularly reproduced and sold in abundance, except for in the art world, where an object’s uniqueness is valued.

Artist Talk

Encaustic House - Zachary Armstrong 2026