Fashion, females, fabric and jewellery are the aesthetic concerns of Lewis’ work. The setting is firmly rooted in the film and literary noirs of the 40s and 50s.
Each work takes place in close and intimate interiors dominated by a solitary female figure. The dim artificial lighting is evocative of a city at night.
This is a city populated with femme fatales often in an ambiguous state of dress or undress. Hardboiled men are ever absent from the scene or just out of picture but their presence is recurrently implied.
The works ooze sensuality and glamour but are often underscored by a darker narrative. Where there is a narrative it is always obscured, much like the female form adorned in clothing and jewellery.
This is a highly stylized vision of femininity
suggesting both fragility and sexual power. It is an ephemeral vision
set in an epoch where all popular cultural ideas about femininity were
about to shatter into the feminist resurgence of the 1960’s.
EDUCATION
1992 Associate Diploma of Arts in Commercial Art, Queensland College of
Art
EXHIBITIONS
2010 Jackman Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Gallery 2120, Brisbane
2010 Group Exhibition, Astras Galleries, Gold Coast
2009 Jackman Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Group Exhibition, Gallery 2120, Brisbane
2009 Group Show Kiln Gallery, Brisbane
2008 Dean Reilly Gallery (now Gallery 2120) Group show, Brisbane
2008 Group Show Charity Auction for Smartcare, Brisbane
2008 Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Real Life Charles Ginn Gallery
2006 Charles Ginn Gallery, Brisbane
2006 The Everyday, Charles Ginn Gallery
2005 Artworks Gallery, Gold Coast
2005 Archibelle Women in Abstract, Charles Ginn Gallery
2004 Artworks Gallery, Gold Coast
2004 Gold Coast Convention Centre Art Show
2004 Noosa Regional Art Show
2004 Gold Coast Convention Centre Art Show
2003 Jacaranda Charity for Compassionate Friends, Brisbane
2003 Landsborough Art Show, Landsborough
2003 The Courier Mail Art Show, Brisbane
2002 The Courier Mail Art Show, Brisbane
2001 The Courier Mail Art Show, Brisbane
AWARDS
1990 Commendation Award, 1990 Coca-Cola Excellence in Youth Art exhibition
1990 Certificate of Recognition, Minister’s Awards for Excellence
in Art
COMMISSIONS
2008 John Playfoot St Kilda Melbourne private collection
2008 Michael & Pearl Nissen Melbourne private collection
2007 7.30 Report Journalist Pamela Bournehurst
2004 Springwood Hotel Foyer
2004 Kato the tiger Dreamworld office foyer, Gold Coast
THE HEIRESS
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
DEADLY IS THE FEMALE
THE BLUE DAHLIA
VALENTINO