Spencer Lewis, Afterimage (purple self-immolation), 2026, oil, acrylic, paper pulp, ink on jute, 97 x 68 inches
The finesse implied by Spencer Lewis’ stellar academic bonafides (Rhode Island School of Design and the University of California, Los Angeles) provided the foundation for his resonant, intensely concentrated, and energetically direct paintings.
Through repeatedly revisiting a system of mark making–much as Cy Twombly did for the duration of his practice–that is settled, but varied, rich with incident Lewis bathes in the corporality of his slashes that get the stuff (paint on jute) to resolve into blasted heath semblances that hold theoretical concerns just beneath the surfaces.
While Lewis is currently based in Los Angeles, one cannot deny the resonance of the East Coast, where he was born (in Hartford, Connecticut). In one sense Lewis has rolled the clock back to pre-POP, airing an intense indebtedness to early Rauschenberg (a candidate for patron saint of this exhibition) as the locus of generative inspiration and historical legacy that carries weight.