Tissue II
2021 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
40 x 26 inches
Nathan Lewis
Nathan Lewis has always made figurative and abstract drawings, which are related to anatomical textures and patterns he encountered when working as an ICU nurse. Hence the title of this work, Tissue II , is a spare and elegant work, in which the artist combines hand sculpted paper with embossment and frottage for the first time in his practice. The effect recalls African weaving and skin embellishment, but also reflects the influence of his former job as an intensive-care nurse, seeking to heal the most damaged. Tissue II reflects how the artist’s practice remains closely connected to the body, in particular to skin, which as a membrane is vulnerable and prone to scarring, for unintentional as well as beatific reasons. Lewis’s work often centers African-American figures in he explores empathy and what empathy looks like outside of the hospital. In other works, he sometimes cuts and scrapes black-and-white photographic portraits, removing pigment while adding patterns and flocked textures. In his intricate works on paper, incisions and gashes are not sewn back together. The wounds remain wide open, irremediable narratives in their current condition, as if taking the scalpel to society.
Nathan Lewis’s unfeigned drawings have evolved out of the nine years he worked as a critical care nurse at a Washington, D.C. hospital. As he describes himself, his work is influenced by the rhythms and records of people’s lives – vulnerability, empathy and care. A significant influence on the artist’s work is jazz music, which dates back to his childhood when he played the violin. He often references his music contemporaries as inspirations, in particular Josiah McRaven, Kassa Overall, and Matana Roberts. Another influence and the source of movement and rhythm in his work comes from his practice of Capoeira, a martial art camouflaging as dance, invented by enslaved Africans in Brazil. Capoeira, with its connection to music, gives shape to the temporal, cumulative meditative process of how Lewis develops his drawings. Lewis also considers Milford Graves as another important influence; Graves is an artist who also connects healing, martial arts, sound and visual art in a unique, autodidactic way. Lewis is involved in Wide Awakes, an artist collective that raises political participation (“joyful resistance”) through performance and happenings, after the Wide Awakes of the 1860s.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
John Houck
2013John Houck’s brown- , sienna- and golden-toned composition, Untitled #185, 65, 535 combinations of a 2×2 grid, 16 colors , features densely packed lines of color moving diagonally across the creased page...
© » LONDONIST
Art Exhibitions To See In London February 2024 | Londonist The Top Exhibitions To See In London: February 2024 By Tabish Khan Tabish Khan The Top Exhibitions To See In London: February 2024 Looking for an awesome London exhibition this February? Here's our roundup of must-see shows in the capital, plus two additions outside of London...
© » IGNANT
Designing Tranquility — Inside The Minimalist World Of Isern Sera And Valeria Vasi - IGNANT Name Isern Sera · Valeria Vasi Images Monika Mroz Words Monika Mróz Spanning his interior work from residential to exhibition design, Isern Serra conveys minimalism with a human face in every space he designs...
© » KADIST
Tarik Kiswanson
2020The artist’s Passings series are hand-sewn works composed of radiological scans of items of clothing loaned by the Tiraz Foundation in Jordan...
© » AFC
Institutional failure, Trump’s Agenda, and Meme-Driven Conservative Movements: A Talk with Nayland Blake About AFC Board AFC Editions Donate Art F City Institutional failure, Trump’s Agenda, and Meme-Driven Conservative Movements: A Talk with Nayland Blake by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on June 29, 2020 Explain Me + Podcast Tweet Boogaloo Boys show off posters supporting Trump at a demonstration Artist Nayland Blake joins the podcast to discuss the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, mass protests, and the resurgence of COVID as the backdrop for public art and how museums are addressing diversity...
© » KADIST
Saâdane Afif
2005In this work, Saâdane Afif quotes André Cadere’s round wooden batons using the copy share and remix principles...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Vietnam's visual arts and COVID-19 | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints Nguyen Duc Phuong July 30, 2020 By Quyen Hoang (2,100 words, 8-minute read) On a rainy evening towards the end of May 2020, it seemed like Saigon’s most dapper guys and modish gals all flocked to Galerie Quynh...
© » KADIST
Johanna Calle
2003Calle’s drawings all inhabit received forms but alter them to call attention to specific qualities...
© » ARTSJOURNAL
Friend of Francis Bacon snubs the Tate to give art works to Paris instead | Francis Bacon | The Guardian Skip to main content Skip to navigation Advertisement Friend of Francis Bacon snubs the Tate to give art works to Paris instead Barry Joule says he is cancelling plans to donate a collection to the UK gallery because it failed to exhibit works in earlier gift A photograph of Francis Bacon and Barry Joule with the art dealer Catharina Toto Koopman on holiday in Sicily in 1987...
