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. He is represented in New York, Philadelphia, Texas, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Upcoming exhibitions include shows in New York and Hong Kong in 2016. He 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. ARTIST STATEMENT: "I believe that my direct connection with the ecology of the Gulf Coast was pivotal to the early formulation of my aesthetic. There is a strange and wonderful mixture of Native American, French Acadian, African American, and Mexican cultures that contributes to the land’s vibration. I was lucky enough to experience the crossing over of so many religions and belief systems. Animism, Catholicism, Mysticism, Voodoo … It is all there, and is inextricably tied to the land. For me, imagery seems to make itself known through perception of a thing or throughremembered experience. The natural environment is the only source that provides the metaphors for the way that abstract paintings work. We don’t have language to help us deal with abstract images. Paintings should take you way beyond any singular subject matter. I like the sense that everything is available. The work is born out of relationships to or qualities within nature that connect with my psyche.Art is often referred to as a reflection of nature in both Eastern and Western culture. Man being part of nature rather than subjugating it is not a new idea. We seem to sometimes forget this basic tenet of being human. Paul Klee said that paintings in and of themselves are nature. Nature from which the materials and support came, nature is the artist’s hand, nature as dialogue with the viewer, resulting in an image as a reminder of not who but what we are. My artistic life is something akin to the surfaces in the paintings: aqueous, fluid, non-linear, ever changing." -Rick Lewis