Dale Lewis’ paintings depict the artist’s personal experiences, painted from memory. Reflecting on the realities of contemporary urban life, he focuses on subjects drawn from his immediate surroundings: social immobility, consumerist excess, binge drinking culture, gang violence, bad diet, class divides, family life and 9-5 jobs. Lewis’ energetic yet meticulously detailed paintings inherit the scale, compositional and narrative structures of canonical art historical painting – renaissance and religious scenes in particular – with devices of metamorphosis, transcendence, spirituality and sexuality serving as mainstays.
Dale Lewis (b. 1980) completed a BA in Fine Art at London Guildhall in 2002, an MFA at Brighton in 2006 and graduated from the Turps Studio Programme in 2015. Recent solo exhibitions include No Place Like Home, Block 336, London, UK (2021); The Great Day, Edel Assanti, London, UK (2020); Free Range, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2019) and Fat, Sugar, Salt, Edel Assanti, London, UK (2018). Recent group exhibitions include The Day I Saw You, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Querétaro MACQ, Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico (2023) and Friends and Friends of Friends, Schlossmuseum, Linz, Austria (2020). In 2021 Lewis’ permanent 8 metre high mural was unveiled at Picturehouse’s newest central London cinema. Lewis was the recipient of the 2016 Jerwood Painting Fellowship. His work is in international collections including The Arsenal, Montreal, Canada; By Art Matters, Hangzhou, China; David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK; Fundacion AMMA, Mexico; Government Art Collection, London, UK; Hort Foundation, New York, USA and Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK. Dale Lewis lives and works in London.
