Untitled is the first monograph of American artist Spencer Lewis. It covers a decade of the artist practice and gathers more than 200 images of his famous post abstract expressionist paintings, some sketches and drawings, and some exhibition and studio views.
The publication features an essay by American art critic Barry Schwabsky and by art historian Kendra Walker as well as a long conversation between the artist and musician David "Dave 1" Macklovitch from the electro-funk band Chromeo. The volume is printed on 4 different paper stock and is bound into a silkscreened and foiled section-sewn soft cover.
Known for his gestural paintings on carboard and jute, Spencer Lewis (born 1979 in Hartford, CT, lives and works in Los Angeles) uses flashy bright and colorful notions executed through streaked lines, smears of paint and rough strokes that suggest the impulsive creative process underneath. With chaotic, almost infinite layers, Lewis's canvases conceal and simultaneously unveil a brushstroke, a gesture over the other, stories and moments culminating and accumulating on the painting's densest parts. Despite the apparent unpredictability of Lewis's compositions, they are based on a methodology and structure. Lewis is, in fact, interested in pictorial organization and image-making. Consistently concentrating towards the centre of the canvas, Lewis's brushstrokes frantically tell the different layers of the same narrative. Descriptive marks and eloquent signs build up on the jute to create a history on the verge of legibility.
Lewis' work is in the permanent collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentoville, Arkansas.
