Jack Lewis’ paintings and collages inhabit vast open spaces populated by isolated figures and various objects. Using stylistic images of 1950s Americana as a platform for his paintings, Lewis also appropriates these images into mixed media collages, adopting the content and context of the original images to convey his own poignant meanings. By negotiating his American roots, symbols of the archetypal hero emerge, as Cowboys, Red Indians, Lone Rangers and other Western motifs, which he sets against seemingly dislocated yet familiar landscapes. The paintings only waveringly adhere to their photographic source, reminding us that distortions of the brush can make a subject have more presence and weight. 

Possessing a facility with paint, Lewis’ work brings a combination of insight and integrity to the genre of figurative art. Whether images a few centimeters wide or several meters high, fluidity combined with a pragmatic approach to representation, seduces and disarms simultaneously. Crucially however Lewis recognizes that it is paint itself rather than the attendant subject matter that lends his paintings complexity and keeps us looking.

Jack Lewis graduated with a BA Fine Art degree from Central Saint Martins in 2009 and has lived and worked in Los Angeles for the past two years. He has exhibited regularly with the Manchester based gallery PS Mirabel, as well as having shows on both a solo and group level with the London based gallery Breese-Little.

Born 1987. London.

Lives in Highland Park, Los Angeles.

Email | Jacklewis87@gmail.com