Hometown: Dumbarton
Based in: Scotland
Scottish-born; Lewis grew up in Dumbarton before moving to Dundee to pursue a contemporary art degree in which he graduated with a first-class honor in 2020. Lewis won both the James Guthrie Orchar Memorial Prize and the Farquar Reid Trust Prize during the degree show, as well as being selected for the Freelands Painting Prize. After being awarded the William S Phillips award, a bursary for his tuition fees, Lewis continued his studies at DJCAD graduating with merit in MFA Art & Humanities in 2021.
A student of Yoga and meditation, these practices greatly inform Lewis's work, which explores notions of the self in relationship to technology. Simultaneously looking inwards towards his own conscious experience and out towards our humanity as a whole, Lewis’ work questions our collective ontology in an ever changing, technologically advanced world.
"With art we can envision a more beautiful world & together, we can bring it into being."
What inspires you?
The belief in the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
Describe your creative process.
My process has various overlapping stages of creation. I first begin with the painted surface, expressively applying layers of paint onto board. Simultaneously, I am working on hand drawn geometric compositions, which I later refine on the computer using digital media. This digital composition is then cut out of the painted surface, leaving me with individual cut out shapes which are then reconstructed, at times combined and often further painted, before glueing the shapes down to create the finished image.
What are 3 words that best describe your work?
Abstract Transcendent Abstraction
Who are some artists that have influenced your work?
Im am fascinated by the pioneers of non-objective abstraction in the early 20th century, notably, Kandinsky & Hilma Klint. The search for meaning through total abstraction by the abstract expressionist has deeply inspired my work. Also, the chaotic brilliance of Basquiat. In contemporary times, Ryan Hewett, Phillip Taaffe and Olafur Eliasson continue to excite me. Out-with modern art, I find islamic art beautifully inspiring. I like to find inspiration from different times, locations and context’s, and find prehistoric expression’s of the mandala incredibly powerful, from Buddhism sand mandalas to native American’s medicine wheel’s and Celtic knot-work.
What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
To make painting a way of life, to integrate it into who I am and seek to understand myself and the world through the creative process.
Where do you go for inspiration?
Inspiration for me comes from a way of being rather than a physical place, it is a gift we must be ready to receive or it will pass us by. Simply starting to draw or paint, even without an idea, ideas will soon come.
Education
DJCAD, University of Dundee
United Kingdom, 2021
DJCAD, University of Dundee
United Kingdom, 2020
Exhibitions
Becoming
2022
Everyone & No One
2021
Awards
James Guthrie Orchar Memorial Prize
2020
Farquhar Reid Trust Prize
2020
William S Phillips Award
2020
Freeland Painting Prize
2020
Education
DJCAD, University of Dundee
United Kingdom, 2021
DJCAD, University of Dundee
United Kingdom, 2020
Exhibitions
Becoming
2022
Everyone & No One
2021
Awards
James Guthrie Orchar Memorial Prize
2020
Farquhar Reid Trust Prize
2020
William S Phillips Award
2020
Freeland Painting Prize
2020