Nate Lewis explores history through patterns, textures, and rhythm, creating meditations of celebration and lamentations.

« I am interested in the unseen. My work is driven by empathy, and the desire to understand nuanced points of view. By altering photographs, I aim to challenge people’s perspectives on race and history through distortion and illusion. Treating the paper like an organism itself, I sculpt patterns akin to cellular tissue and anatomical elements, allowing hidden histories and patterns to be uncovered from the photographs. I approach subjects and imagery from a diagnostic place with the idea of utilizing diagnostic lenses and contrast dyes. By virtue of my medical training, I am interested in the tensions that exist within and without us. Ultimately, the work embraces humanistic ideas of human connection and understanding. »

BIOGRAPHY

Nate Lewis (b. 1985, Beaver Falls, PA; lives and works in New York City) holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from VCU and worked for nine years as a critical‑care nurse in hospitals across the Washington, D.C. area. He began his artistic practice with the violin in 2008, followed by drawing in 2010, gradually developing a distinctive approach to sculpting paper through incision, texture, and bodily imagery.

He has exhibited his work at institutions such as the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT; 21c Museum Hotels, multiple locations, US; Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services, Washington, DC, « Men of Change: Power, Triumph, Truth ». Lewis has been an artist‑in‑residence at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY, and Dieu Donné, New York, NY.

His works are held in numerous public and private collections, including: AMOCA Wales, Cardiff, UK; The Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT; Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane, WA; Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art, Cardiff, UK; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA; Gund Gallery Collection, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH; University of Maryland Art Collection, College Park, MD; International African American Museum, Charleston, SC; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, CA / Paris, FR; Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, Bethlehem, PA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; The Bunker Artspace, Palm Beach, FL; The Dean Collection, New York, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY; Yuko Nii Foundation, Brooklyn, NY; 21c Museum Hotels, multiple locations, US; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Hall Art Foundation, Reading, VT / Derneburg, DE.

His recent activity includes several public talks and lectures at the Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, and Paris Photo, as well as participation in « For Real For Real » at the DAAD Artists‑in‑Berlin Program, curated by Claudia Rankine, John Lucas, Russell Salmon, and Mathias Zeiske. He also took part in « AMOCA Dialogues: Black Voices from the Museum Collection » at Marble Hall, Temple of Peace, Cardiff, Wales.