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April Issue 2008
Craven Allen Gallery in Durham, NC,
Features Works by Louis St. Lewis
If You're Looking for Trouble, You Came to the Right Place, an exhibit of paintings, mixed media works on paper, and sculpture by Louis St. Lewis will be on view at the Craven Allen Gallery in Durham, NC, through Apr. 19, 2008.
St. Lewis says that Craven Allen Gallery "has a subterranean feeling that reminds me of the Paris Catacombs, as well as the old backrooms at Studio 54, where I had some fun." To set the mood, St. Lewis has created stunning chandeliers as fitting counterpoints for assemblage and paper collage pieces of contemporary icons he calls "Paper Gods." The exhibition features large graphic Warhol inspired imagery, energized with St. Lewis' own unique brushstroke, which in this series evokes an almost oriental calligraphic mood, "a Zen moment for modern day troubled divas and their demons." Enigmatic, possibly erotic homages to idols like Jack Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger share the stage with the heroines of TMZ.com. "What most people don't understand is that these are all very fragile artistic souls just trying to make it through the day like all the rest of us." Another series uses the artist's blood as the medium.
St. Lewis attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and Stanford University, and lives in Chapel Hill.
What others have said about Louis St. Lewis:
"Louis St. Lewis is a compelling artist from Chapel Hill, North Carolina who has gained considerable exposure and recognition for a wide range of creative endeavors, including painting, sculpture and collage. He is also known for reliefs and assemblage works which rely on actual dimensional objects for their symbolic support. St. Lewis is one of a number of artists working today with a fascination for the past. His work generally plays off classic Greek and Roman themes, or early 19th century images which he subverts and updates to address a range of contemporary issues. His style is an eclectic mix of expressionism and pop, figuration and abstraction, narrative and decoration.- combining fragments of diverse source material-which when removed from their original context and placed within his work, take on new, often symbolic meaning."
"St. Lewis recognizes that to understand the present, you must know the past. His works are a pointed reminder that myths are the stories of our quest through the ages for meaning and truth; and that mythology can provide clues to the problems and issues we face as a society today. For St. Lewis, mythology is the guidepost in his own search for answers; and while each work makes clear reference to the source from which they are drawn, the stories are rescripted to satisfy his own fantasies and interests." Offered by Tom W. Jones, Director of the Museum of the Southwest.
"I quickly realized that St. Lewis is one of those individuals who doesn't stop at the edge of the canvas, so to speak. Instead, it infuses all aspects of his life, from the way he talks to the way he dresses to the way he decorates his environment where he lives and works. On one level, he's a performance artist for whom the performance never ends, and his individual paintings, collages and assemblages are props and pieces of the constantly evolving stage set that his studio and the world-at-large comprise for him." Offered Tom Patterson writing for ARTPAPERS in Atlanta..
"Whether drawing from Judeo-Christian or pagan sources, St. Lewis concocts a witches brew. Indeed, the cast of characters in this symbol laden jambalaya is as diverse as a politically correct committee. And his fecund garden is as redolent with signs as a Bangkok streetscape. There is something vaguely promiscuous about this polyglot assortment of pagan and priest, modern history and ancient mythology. Isn't something lost when everything has the same level of importance? On television, commercials for cars and detergent are transmitted at the same decibel level of detail as news about suicide bombings. In this display, the face of Marilyn Monroe is placed alongside a reference to Nagasaki. His world of Icons is a democratic world. All is fetish." Offered by an unidentified author for ARTPAPERS in Atlanta..
"While St. Lewis' materials and sources are familiar - found objects, xerography, assemblage, mythology - his work is unique because of the witty and macabre, yet beautiful ways in which these elements are combined." Offered by an unidentified author for ARTPAPERS in Atlanta.
"St. Lewis conveys an uncanny mix of glamour, sex and antiquity appropriate to someone ( St. Lewis) who once said he wanted to be an artist because of the freedom it bestowed. 'A freedom known only to rock stars and Baptist preachers' he opined. Beautiful and beautifully crafted, his assemblage and collage creations are a stunning reminder of what true talent can do when left to its own devices." Offered by an unidentified author for GAMBIT WEEKLY, in New Orleans.
"In the world of art today, originality is an endangered species. Most artists simply copy prevailing styles and the result is a feeling of deja vu in the majority of galleries you visit. That is not the case with the art of Louis St. Lewis who is currently showing at Jernigan-Wicker Fine Art. While definitely one of Warhol's feral offspring, St. Lewis possesses a true originality that slaps you directly across the face with it's freshness, brashness and honesty. Not one to play it safe, the artist goes way out on a limb, and lures you out to those fragile branches with his enchanting creations and biting wit." Offered by an unidentified author for The San Francisco Chronicle.
"The scope of St.Lewis' investigation and experimentation is exceptional. Like Picasso and Matisse before him, Louis works fast and free, relishing the unfinished edge, the glue that shows, the evidence of a rough hand. Every artwork he creates is a new experience, and the depth and breadth of his creativity flies in the face of the banal production line productivity of many of his contemporaries." Offered by Mark Sloan, Director, Halsey Gallery, The College of Charleston.
The artworks of St.Lewis are found in many notable collections including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art - A Smithsonian affiliate and the largest museum in the world dedicated to the promotion of Southern artists, The New Orleans Museum of Art, The Morris Museum of Fine Art, and The Masur Museum of Art. St. Lewis is in several private collections with roots in North Carolina including NC Museum of Art Director Larry Wheeler, Allen G. Thomas Jr. Tom Kenan III, Francine & Benson Pilloff, Mr. & Mrs. James Duke Semans Jr., Sean Yseult, and Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley. Other collectors include HRH The Prince of Kuwait, Christian LaCroix, Danielle Steele, Oprah Winfrey, and Tatum O'Neal. A comprehensive exhibition of St. Lewis' assemblage sculptures will be held this Aug-Oct., 2008, at ARTSPACE in Raleigh with works from that show traveling to the Visionary Museum in MD.
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 919/286-4837 or visit (www.CravenAllenGallery.com).
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