Known for his gestural paintings on carboard and jute, Spencer Lewis uses flashy bright and colorful notions executed through streaked lines, smears of paint and rough strokes that suggest the impulsive creative process underneath. With chaotic, almost infinite layers, Lewis’s canvases conceal and simultaneously unveil a brushstroke, a gesture over the other, stories and moments culminating and accumulating on the painting’s densest parts. Despite the apparent unpredictability of Lewis’s compositions, they are based on a methodology and structure. Lewis is, in fact, interested in pictorial organization and image-making. Consistently concentrating towards the centre of the canvas, Lewis’s brushstrokes frantically tell the different layers of the same narrative. Descriptive marks and eloquent signs build up on the jute to create a history on the verge of legibility.

Specer Lewis was born in Hartford, CT, in 1979. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 2002 and his MFA degree from University of California, Los Angeles, in 2008. Solo exhibitions have been held at MASSIMODECARLO, Hong Kong (2022); Vito Schnabel, New York (2022; 2021); Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Wien (2022); Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels (2021); Nino Mier, Los Angeles (2016). His work has been included in recent group shows at Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila (2023); MAS, Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp, Belgium (2019); Harper’s Books, East Hampton (2020; 2018); The Pit, Los Angeles (2018); Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, USA (2014).