* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Henry Lewis is an American painter and tattooist. Born in the southern California town of Pasadena, the 4th of 14 children, the early foundations of his artistic practice were formulated there. Informed primarily by the tragic loss of his brother as a child, the very specific cultural climate around him, and later the loss of his father, he started creating at a young age, and then with intention in his teens ultimately evolving into tattooing and painting for the last 10 years.
Much of his work, conceptually, is born out of the ashes of loss, memory, and time. While technically challenging and pushing the relationship between paint and ink, his interest in the human condition and all its complexities continues to pervade his work. Death, birth, love, uncertainty, and truth are constant thematic elements of the work. Often rearing their heads through sinister imagery, livid characters, and his pension for a limited palate.
The connection between his environment and mediums, during a period of time when many artists choose ready-made, redundant, and easily digestible media, is most evident in the motifs of light and detail used throughout his work. Drawing heavily from the baroque period, his style uses exaggerated motion, clear detail, and dark shadows as counter point to shafts of light.
