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Samuel Fleming Lewis (b. 1953, Los Angeles, CA) documents his experience as a Black, HIV positive man in painting, drawing, and mixed-media collage. In raw, emotional compositions, Lewis responds to themes including race, politics, and sexual discrimination. Playing upon the affective associations of his media, Lewis occasionally incorporates visceral materialities alongside his graphic illustrations and cutting letterform contours.
Lewis has worked in architecture and interior design offices, and has managed his own design firm for more than forty years. Lewis’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Pacific Union College, Angwin, California; Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California; Gensler and Associates Design Firm, San Francisco; Vision and Magick Gallery, Petaluma, California; Sonoma County Repertory Theatre, Sebastopol, California; and Finley Community Center, Santa Rosa, California. He was also included in the group exhibitions Textile Meets Politics at the California Museum of Art, San Pedro, California, in 1998 and Patterns, Textures, and Repetitions at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts in 1996.
He lives and works in Palm Springs, California.
SAMUEL FLEMING LEWIS
ARTIST STATEMENT
Born 1953 Los Angeles, CA Lives and works in Palm Springs, CA
I am an American artist best recognized for my abstract mixed media paper on canvas collages and blind contour portrait drawings. In 2023 I started to develop one of a kind digital collage works as a new method to create.
The foundation of my work is collage. Incorporating my drawing or drafting methods with recycled printed materials, graphic design and African art, I create collages. My collage pieces unite geometric shapes, abstracted forms, repetition, color, and patterns.
My abstract representations of what I see or feel in my minds eye are my blind contour portraits. I have complete freedom to create abstract portraits thanks to the drawing technique. While studying faces on images or African masks, I use graphite pencil, ink, oil-stick or acrylic markers. I also utilize my face or body as a model by touching while drawing.
I want the handmade quality of my collages and drawing works to attract the interest of viewers. As an artist, I produce vibrant graphic compositions that allow viewers to drift into the realm of artistic expression. Some of my works subtly
raises awareness of prejudice, injustice, racial bias, homophobia, human rights, and other concerns while simultaneously being visually appealing.