Tony Lewis

Tony Lewis was born in 1986 in Los Angeles. He currently lives and works in Chicago.


Lewis’s practice focuses on the relationship between semiotics and language to confront social and political topics such as race, power, communication, and labour. Lewis creates drawings using graphite, pencil and paper, mediums the artist uses to trace and develop abstract narratives and reflections on the notion of the gestural. By pushing the boundaries of drawing and the possibilities of abstraction, he expands the use of the “material” of language. As expressed by Melissa Chiu, Director of Hirshhorn Museum: ‘Lewis has quickly established himself in the contemporary art world by forming a distinct visual vocabulary that integrates poetry and text with the properties of abstraction, and his monochromatic drawings pull from various visual and written sources, ranging from the personal to the political. Separating, rearranging, and erasing text, he shifts the way we move through language to open up new and unexpected readings.’


Lewis participated in the 2014 iteration of the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY and was the recipient of the 2017–2018 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Award at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Tony Lewis Portrait 3 m7 In0y

Biography

Solo exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2023
HK, New Song We Wrest! Who Throng Heat Yet? Tone Got Flower Work., MASSIMODECARLO, Hong Kong
USA, CASUAL T, Orange County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
2022
USA, EONS OF NEON NESCIENT PEONS POPCORN INFLUENCE AND SUCH, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
2021
UK, Noise! Yourself, Also Distrain, MASSIMODECARLO, London
UK, Sing Plunder, Think Gentle Damage, Maintain Tomorrow, Et al., MASSIMODECARLO, London
2020
I, The Dangers (As Far As I Can See), Massimo De Carlo, Milano
2019
USA, Charlatan And Ultimately A Boring Man, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
2018
E, Campo de juego, Art Projects Ibiza, Ibiza
USA, Anthology 2014-2016, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington
HK, Engine Insist Itself Nothing Short Etc., Massimo De Carlo, Hong Kong
2017
USA, Plunder, Rose Art Museum, Waltham
UK, When I Felt Like I Could Sing That, Then I Felt Like I Was In, Massimo De Carlo, London
USA, Jot, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
2016
I, Alms, Comity and Plunder, Marino Marini Museum, Florence
2015
CH, Art Basel Unlimited, Basel
I, Wordnonpseudo, Massimo De Carlo, Milano
USA, Pall, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago
USA, Tony Lewis: nomenclature movement free pressure power weight, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland
2014
UK, I Believe History Is a Force, Massimo De Carlo, London
2012
USA, Nine Drawings for Charles, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago
2011
USA, Autumn Space Presents: Tony Lewis, Autumn Space Gallery, Chicago
Group exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2022
USA, Sympathy for the Translator, The ICA at MECA&D, Portland
USA, In With The New…, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
USA, Sculpture as Verb, Gund Gallery, Gambier
USA, Citing Black Geographies, GRAY Gallery, Chicago
I, Reading a Wave Curated by Douglas Fogle and Hanneke Skerath, Palomar, Pognana
USA, In With The New…, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
USA, Sympathy for the Translator, ICA at Maine Collage of Art & Design, Portland
ROK, MINIMALISM-MAXIMALISM-MECHANISSMMM Curated by Jacob Fabricius, ArtSonjeCenter, Seoul
USA, In These Truths, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York
I, Winter Wunderkammer, MASSIMODECARLO, VSpace
2021
USA, At The Luss House: Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing, The Gerald Luss House, Ossining, NY
USA, Thing, The Gerald Luss House, Ossining, New York
USA, Grain of a Hand: Drawings with Charcoal, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
I, Villa Chiuminatto, Villa Chiuminatto, Torino
USA, Hiding in Plain Sight, Pace Gallery, New York
2020
USA, The Long Dream, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
USA, 5,471 miles, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
2019
USA, Words, Alexander Berggruen Gallery LLC, New York
2018
USA, Untitled (Monochrome), 1957-2017, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York
USA, Under Erasure Curated by Heather and Raphael Rubinstein, Pierogi, New York
USA, This is a Pipe: Realism and the Found Object in Contemporary Art, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago
USA, Second Sight: The Paradox of Vision in Contemporary Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick
2017
PA, Speech/Acts, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
USA, Color People, Rental Gallery, East Hampton
UK, The Gap Between the Fridge and the Cooker, The Modern Institute, Glasgow
2016
USA, Chicago and Vicinity, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago
UK, Imitation of Life: Melodrama and Race in the 21st Century, Home Museum, Manchester
USA, The Revolution Will Not Be Grey, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
USA, Michel François, Liz Larner, Tony Lewis, Virginia Overton, Morgan Fisher, Bortolami Gallery, New York
USA, Chicago Invites Chicago, Galerie Lelong, New York
UK, Self, Massimo De Carlo, London
2015
USA, SAIC Anniversary Alumni Exhibition Curated by Scott and Tyson Reeder, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago

Bibliography

Year
Author, Publication Title, Date
2021
Artdaily, april
2020
Giorgini, Elena, ArtsLife, February
2019
Zara, Janelle, Artnet News, May 31
2018
Webwire.com, February
Catlin, Roger, Smithsonianmag.com, March
Gould, Jocelyn, Thejustice.org, April
Hallé, Isabelle, Bowdoinorient.com, February
Lewis, Tony, Anthology 2014-2016, Exhibition Catalogue.
2017
Bay State Banner, December
2016
Zero, Aprile
LA Times, 2 May
Fassi, Luigi, Mousse Magazine
Flash Art Edizione Italiana, March/April
2015
Inside/Within
Fabricius, Jacob, Mousse
Michalska, Julia, The Art Newspaper, June 18th
ARTFORUM, Nov
Tony Lewis: Free movement power nomenclature pressure weight, Exhibition Catalogue.
Fabricius, Jacob, Making Room for Drawing Series, Exhibition Catalogue.
2014
Tony Lewis speaks with Dr. Robert P. Vande Kappelle
Blake, Kevin, Bad at Sports, April
Duray, Dan, Andrew Russeth e Zoe Lescaze, 12 Things to Do in New York's Art World Before May 11th
Foumberg, Jason, Newcity
Pechman, Ali, Art Forum
Samuels Gibbs, Adrienne, Chicago Sunday Times
museumagazine online
2013
Judd, Jason, Make Space
Niendorf, Emmaline, Simply Magnificent
Schouweiler, Susannah, Knight Arts

Public collections

Country
Location
Italy
Collezione La Gaia, Busca
United Kingdom
The Zabludowicz Collection, London
United States of America
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

Downloads

Type
Title
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Tony Lewis