Nate Lewis (artist) facts for kids

Nate Lewis (born 1985) is an American artist.

Art

Lewis graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 2009. Lewis' artwork borrows heavily from that medical training to deliver works that he describes as being influenced by the "rhythms and records of people’s lives... vulnerability, empathy and care." As the self-taught artist's work and exposure progressed, he "started using African-American figures and thinking about empathy and what is empathy outside of the hospital." The Washington City Paper described his process as "... The works are compositionally minimal, even austere—mostly portraits that are simple and straight on, printed on porous paper in stark black and white. Lewis then sculpts the paper by snipping, slicing, and perforating the silhouette of the bodies to create three-dimensional figures that emerge from the canvas."

In 2019, together with street artist Shepard Fairey and others, Lewis began exploring the use of billboards for political art purposes to create anti-President Trump messages ahead of the President's visit to Cleveland.

Awards

Lewis was a 2014 Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Regional Winner (Washington DC). His work has been included in the US Art in Embassies Program, and is in the permanent collections of the University of Maryland and the Yuko Nii Foundation. Lewis was selected in 2014 as the inaugural resident artist for Martha's Vineyard Art on the Vine Program.