Rick Lewis was born in Lumberton, Texas in 1965. He received a Bachelor of Science
in Graphic Design at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and completed an MFA at the
University of North Texas in Denton in 1992. Lewis works primarily as an abstract painter.
Additionally, he incorporates drawing, printmaking, photography and sculpture into his studio
practice.
His work is represented in New York, Philadelphia, Texas, Connecticut, Hong Kong, and
Indonesia. Rick is the recipient of the Carol Cook Memorial Foundation Arts Award for
excellence in painting and Artist in Residency awards from the Millay Colony in Austerlitz,
New York, the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts in Bali, Indonesia, Endless Editions in New
York, New York, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation in Montauk, New York.
Rick Lewis’ influences include Alberto Burri, Antoni Tapies, Texan visionary painter Forrest
Bess, Paul Klee, Arte Povera, and Process art. His work is held in numerous public and
private collections throughout the world. Two printed survey catalogs of Rick’s work were
recently added to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Permanent Library.
He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

"I am a visual artist whose work investigates small and large scale abstraction primarily in the medium of painting employing the use of industrial materials: enamel paint, jute, plastic asphalt, muslin, cardboard, soil, marble dust, etc. Additionally sculpture and printmaking figures into my practice. My work is born out of relationships to or qualities within nature that connect with my psyche. The treatment of paint and material evokes environmental associations that are experienced and remembered through the body. The work has a present power to confront and resist conditioning towards shock value, immediate recognition of imagery, and the seduction of the virtual. Materiality is still the baseline power that painting is equipped with for it’s infinite possibilities. For the past 24 years I have been an active professional artist in New York, mounting local and international exhibitions of my own work and curating exhibitions and projects of fellow artists." -Rick Lewis