Andrew Lewis is an internationally recognized Canadian artist and designer. His artwork has been commissioned by clients such as the British Columbia Arts Council, Canada Post, the Royal Canadian Mint, Perrier, Scotiabank, the Stratford Festival, Starbucks Coffee, Converse, and VISA.
His work is included in numerous international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the French National Library, the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., the International Poster Biennial in Mexico City, and the Design Museum in London, England.
Running parallel with his corporate commissions, Andrew Lewis delves into fine art through acrylic and oil painting, where his focus sharpens on figurative compositions and the nuanced application of color. His work intricately weaves a narrative that explores the human experience within both public and personal spaces, capturing the essence of individual stories through sophisticated color palettes and dynamic forms. Lewis’s art complements his professional endeavors and stands as a testament to his commitment to understanding and depicting the complexities of human interaction and identity.
Artist Statement
My work in painting explores how colour and figuration can play beyond the obvious, drawing us inward towards ourselves and our subconscious. I am interested in the psychology of colour and how radical colour combinations and painted layers can affect our viewing experience and encourage us to reflect on our own histories. By centralizing people in my work, my portraits depict a subjective interpretation of how one’s inner compass has been reset due to contemporary societal shifts.
My extensive career as a designer has greatly influenced my visual art practice in the way I work with colour and tonality, in addition to the way I utilize narration and allegorical tools. I am drawn to painters such as David Hockney and Georgia O’Keefe who investigate colour and abstraction as tools to relay information. In the same way, I am curious about the storytelling capacities of both the recognizable and the unrecognizable form.