Stanley Lewis Recent Work October 13 - November 13, 2010 at Lohin Geduld Gallery
Porch Steps and Trees, Spring, 2009, oil on canvas, 17 x 24 inches
Stanley Lewis
Recent Work
October 13 - November 13, 2010
Opening Reception Saturday, October 16, 4 to 6 pm
Lohin Geduld Gallery is proud to present our first solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Stanley Lewis.
Stanley Lewis is a perceptual landscape artist. He enters a painting or drawing with an attuned sense of openness to his surroundings. This sounds easy, but it's not. First, the artist must refuse all pictorial conventions that come to mind, and see what is actually in front of him. Next, he must invent a painting language to convey the ever-shifting chaos of light interacting with the physical world. Lewis turns this communion with his subject into a powerful artistic achievement.
Prosaic views of rural small town life are Lewis’ preferred subjects. Driveways, back porches and telephone lines are elevated to the stuff of high art by his intense scrutiny. Painting sessions can extend over the course of months and years. As seasons change, and winter gives way to spring, the artist is there bearing witness to the perceptual truths unfolding in front of him. Using local color as his muse, Lewis makes us feel a crisp blue winter sky pressing through bare trees, or the warmth of a patchy green lakeside lawn in high summer.
The physical build-up of Lewis’ paint surface becomes magisterial, reflecting the urgency of his activity as he labors to capture a passing cloud or lengthening afternoon shadow. The paint is thick, and additions of paper or canvas are occasionally added to the composition to edit or extend the artist’s line of vision. His drawings have an equal intensity. At times Lewis draws and corrects so vigorously that he tears through the paper. This physicality, in both the paintings and drawings, adds to the sense that one is looking at a scene over an extended period of time. These are not just pictures of places, but rather images infused with the energy of their making. They have a convincing sense of locale, but an even greater sense of the artist's passion for making them. By focusing on the objective task of capturing what he sees, Stanley Lewis has created a powerful vision of the world that is uniquely his own.
Stanley Lewis received an MFA and a BFA from Yale University, and a BA from Wesleyan University. His work has been exhibited and collected in New York and throughout the United States since the early 1970s. A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Lewis has held teaching positions at The American University, Washington, D.C.; Smith College, Northampton, MA; and The Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO. Lewis has served as a guest lecturer and visiting artist at numerous institutions including Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY, and the New York Studio School, New York, NY. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, The New York Times, Modern Painters, and The New Criterion, among other publications. Stanley Lewis resides in Leeds, MA, and works on-site at various locations.