Lewis’ work is abundantly detailed - tactile, transformative and terrestrial. She works predominantly with fabric and leather to create “soft portraits” using a broad range of techniques from sewing to carving. The labour-intensive processes act as a symbolic mode of healing. Materials like shells, hair, rock and plaster are recycled into fantastical figures and shrines, while objects foraged from numerous cities are constructed into what the artist calls “portraits of the landscape.” Exploring the erasure of Blackness in both art history and Canadian culture, Lewis illuminates the geographical and social histories that each found object has witnessed. Her work sits within a lineage of Black cultural production including mixed-media artists like Lonnie Holley and Betye Saar, where the recycling of found materials is made generative and radical.
