An unfinished 2019 drawing based on an image of Charlemagne’s destruction of the Irminsul.

What stayed with me was the tree. The Saxons considered it sacred, and I saw something almost human in it—an old face. It became the black, face-like figure at the centre of the drawing.

I never finished the work. The horse, rider and cross remain partly formed among the red, black and green marks.

LT Playfair (Brutalist Figuration)

The Destruction of the Irminsul by Charlamagne

Interpretive exhibition panel outlining the practice, process, and development of Brutalist Figuration.

Playfair works from instinct, allowing raw gesture to precede explanation. The canvas is approached directly: lines are pushed until they carry their own weight, and meaning is allowed to emerge through the act of making.

Rooted in the early sketches and Cancel Culture Years, the practice developed into a stripped, instinct-first approach built on line weight, pressure and intention. Like a three-piece band—drums, bass and guitar—the aim is simple, direct and powerful.

Raw gesture first. Meaning after.

The Practice — Exhibition Panel

Artist panel introducing LT Playfair, founder of Brutalist Figuration.

LT Playfair is a Canadian artist based in West Vancouver whose work follows a primal voice—the instinct to leave a human mark, like the first hunters marking cave walls. Drawing from people, landscapes and culture, Playfair works directly, allowing figures and visual narratives to emerge before explanation takes over.

Inspiration is pivotal to the practice. Playfair doesn't go looking for it; inspiration finds him. When it arrives, he turns it into mark-driven visual narratives in his own voice, through a process that can feel as natural as if the work draws itself.

His early works from 2018–2021 established the foundation of Brutalist Figuration, where line, pressure and gesture carry the work.

Instinct first. Meaning later.

LT Playfair — Artist Panel

Interpretive exhibition panel introducing Brutalist Figuration and its core visual language.

Brutalist Figuration is an instinct-driven approach to drawing in which the line carries the weight and structure of the image. Inspired by Brutalist architecture, the practice exposes rather than conceals its construction: pressure, gesture and the physical trace of the human hand remain visible. Instinct comes before interpretation.

The WEIGHT principles:

W — Weight of the Line
E — Exposed Structure
I — Instinct Before Meaning
G — Gesture as Structure
H — Human Mark
T — Tension with the Surface

At its foundation is the primal human impulse to make a mark—to leave a trace of presence before explanation.

“Instinct first, meaning later.” — LT Playfair

Brutalist Figuration — Exhibition Panel

Brutalist Teaser (2026) is a rapid sequence of five foundational Brutalist Figuration characters: Karate Blade, Lieve Aziatische, Lead Foot, Gender and The Soldier.

The figures arrive against heavy guitar, repeated power chords and bell-like strikes, compressing the practice into ten seconds of line, sound and movement. The film works through the same first-order impulse as the drawings: the primal human mark arriving before explanation.

“My lines have weight.” — LT Playfair

Black Lines Matter

Eye Popper — Sculpture (2026) translates the spare, elongated character of the original 2018 drawing into three-dimensional form. Its exaggerated eye-like presence and skeletal body become a structure of weighted lines, preserving the strange, essential character of the original figure at monumental scale.

Conceived in polished black onyx, the sculpture gives physical weight to the raw, reflexive marks of the original drawing, extending Brutalist Figuration from the drawn surface into monumental space.

The original 2018 drawing, Eye Popper, is published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Eye Popper Sculpture

Gender — Sculpture (2026) translates the ambiguous anatomy of the original 2018 figure into three-dimensional form. Conflicting anatomical signals remain unresolved, but the marks now carry physical weight, turning line into mass and the figure into a presence within the space.

Conceived in polished black onyx, the sculpture extends Brutalist Figuration beyond the drawn surface while remaining faithful to the raw structure of the original figure.

The original Gender (2018) is published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Gender Sculpture

Lieve Aziatische — Sculpture (2026) translates the playful, sexually charged figure of the original 2019 drawing into three-dimensional form. Its triangular smiling head, rounded body and loosely assembled anatomy become a stacked physical presence while retaining the vulnerability and strangeness of the original character.

Conceived in polished black and golden onyx, the sculpture gives physical weight to the raw, reflexive marks of the original drawing, extending Brutalist Figuration from the drawn surface into space.

The original 2019 drawing, Lieve Aziatische, is published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Lieve Aziatische Sculpture

Blonde — Sculpture (2026) translates the fragmented female figure of the original 2020 work into three-dimensional form. The profile, two strands of blonde hair and curve of the breast remain, while the erased torso and uncertain lower body become absence and negative space within the sculpture.

Conceived in polished black and golden onyx, the sculpture gives physical weight to what was originally created through marks and erasure, extending Brutalist Figuration from the drawn surface into space.

The original Blonde (2020) is published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Blonde-Sculpture

Lead Foot — Sculpture (2026) translates the exaggerated stride of the original 2018 figure into three-dimensional form. Its elongated limbs, oversized feet and dense, tangled head become a structure built around forward movement—the figure seems almost caught between one step and the next.

Conceived in polished black onyx, the sculpture gives physical weight to the raw, reflexive marks of the original drawing, extending Brutalist Figuration from the drawn surface into monumental space.

The original 2018 drawing, Lead Foot, is published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Lead Foot Sculpture

Karate Blade — Sculpture (2026) translates the movement of the original 2018 figure into three-dimensional form. Its thick, squiggled head, angular body and mid-vogue gesture become a structure of sweeping lines, giving the figure a sense of motion in space.

Conceived in polished black onyx, the sculpture gives physical weight to the raw, reflexive marks of the original drawing, extending Brutalist Figuration from the drawn surface into monumental form.

The original Karate Blade (2018) is published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Karate Blade Sculpture

The Soldier — Sculpture (2026) takes the heavy black marks of the original 2018 figure and gives them physical consequence. Reduced almost to a symbol, its weapon-like upper form and stark legs become a monumental presence—the line no longer describes the figure; the line is the figure.

Conceived in polished black onyx, The Soldier pushes the weight of the original marks into three-dimensional space. What began as an instinctive drawing becomes a proposed public form: direct, human and built to occupy space.

“My lines have weight.” — LT Playfair

The original 2018 drawing, The Soldier, is published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

The Soldier

Direct Confrontation

Blonde (2020) is a female figure caught somewhere between presence and erasure. Two strands of blonde hair, a profile and the curve of a breast are enough to establish her; below, the body breaks apart into marks that only loosely suggest legs.

Playfair physically erased much of the torso, leaving the eye to reconstruct what is no longer there. The result is characteristic of Brutalist Figuration: the figure survives with remarkably little information.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Blonde

EastVan Pietà V1 draws on Playfair’s experience of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), reducing the female figure to a small vocabulary of black, yellow and red marks.

A triangular head, slanted eyes and red tears sit above a fragmented, almost collage-like body assembled from simple symbols, scratches and an emphatic "#".

Graphic and immediately approachable, V1 uses an economical visual language to hold grief, sexuality and vulnerability within a deceptively simple figure.

EastVan Pietà V2, found later in the collection, strips the image down even further, moving away from the graphic quality of V1 and toward the rawness of life.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021)

EastVan Pietà  v1

The Soldier (2018) is an instinct-driven figurative character built from heavy, uncompromising black marks, its weapon-like form balanced on two stark legs. Reduced almost to a symbol, the line itself becomes the figure.

One of a series drawn within minutes in the afterglow of time with Playfair’s muse, it comes directly from the body, before thought takes over.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Gender (2018) is an instinct-driven figurative character built from conflicting anatomical signals, its identity left deliberately unresolved through raw, reflexive marks.

One of a series drawn within minutes in the afterglow of time with Playfair’s muse, it comes directly from the body, before thought takes over.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Gender

Lieve Aziatische (2019) is an instinct-driven figurative character that mixes sexuality with an unexpected sense of playfulness and vulnerability, rendered through raw, reflexive marks.

One of a series drawn within minutes in the afterglow of time with Playfair’s muse, it comes directly from the body, before thought takes over.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Lieve Aziatische

Karate Blade (2018) is an instinct-driven figurative character built around movement, with raw, reflexive marks, a thick, squiggled head and a body caught mid-vogue.

One of a series drawn within minutes in the afterglow of time with Playfair’s muse, it comes directly from the body, before thought takes over.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Karate Blade

Lead Foot (2018) is an instinct-driven figurative character caught in an exaggerated stride, reduced to raw, reflexive marks and oversized feet.

One of a series drawn within minutes in the afterglow of time with Playfair’s muse, it comes directly from the body, before thought takes over.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Lead Foot

Eye Popper (2018) is an instinct-driven figurative character that strips form to its primal essence through raw, reflexive marks and an exaggerated eye-like presence.

One of a series drawn within minutes in the afterglow of time with Playfair’s muse, it comes directly from the body, before thought takes over.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021).

Eye Popper

EastVan Pietà v2 relocates the traditional Pietà—an image of grief, suffering and vulnerability—to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).

More raw and stripped back than the first version, the female figure is reduced to tears, red scratches and a handful of decisive marks, with another mocking and laughing presence behind her.

Rather than romanticizing the scene, the work reduces it to its essential human signals: exposure, suffering, witness and the marks that remain.

Published in Original Sketches: The Early Years (2018–2021)

EastVan Pietà  v2

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yellow

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dark blue

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light blue

brown

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Canadian Artist | Originator of Brutalist Figuration

LT Playfair is a Canadian artist based in West Vancouver and the originator of Brutalist Figuration—an instinct-driven approach built on line weight, pressure, gesture and direct engagement with the surface.

'Black Lines Matter' brings together foundational works from 2018–2021 and explores what happens when those marks leave the sketchbook and occupy space. Drawings are enlarged to architectural scale, recurring figures are reimagined as sculpture, and sound and movement become part of the encounter.

At the centre of the exhibition is a primal idea: the human need to make a mark. Like the first hunters marking cave walls, Playfair works from instinct before explanation—reducing the figure to essential human signals while allowing the line itself to carry the weight of the image.

“My lines have weight.” — LT Playfair

Black Lines Matter (Brutalist Figuration)

Empty warehouse

LT Playfair (Brutalist Figuration)

collection: Fine art

Material

Medium

Type

Sizes

Orientations

Dimensions

Colors

Colors

The Destruction of the Irminsul by Charlamagne

The Practice — Exhibition Panel

LT Playfair — Artist Panel

Brutalist Figuration — Exhibition Panel

Black Lines Matter

Eye Popper Sculpture

Gender Sculpture

Lieve Aziatische Sculpture

Blonde-Sculpture

Lead Foot Sculpture

Karate Blade Sculpture

The Soldier

Direct Confrontation

Blonde

EastVan Pietà v1

The Soldier

Gender

Lieve Aziatische

Karate Blade

Lead Foot

Eye Popper

EastVan Pietà v2