Spencer Lewis
Afterpiece, Feb 20 – Mar 28, 2026

CANADA is excited to announce Afterpiece, an exhibition of new work by Spencer Lewis. The heavily impasto paintings are made of paper pulp, oil, acrylic, ground glass, found and cast objects and cotton cord. Materially driven, the work seems to emerge from the rough weave of jute and the flotsam of the studio floor. In a departure from past paintings, this body of work is united by a carefully selected palette of purples and creamy whites.

Lewis starts his large to medium format paintings with marks of all types – slashes, daubs, scribbles – using paper and jute pulp to build up thick smears on the surfaces of the canvas. These marks gradually pile up, creating fields that transform into volumes that become hulking masses. The paintings are hefty and literal; the paint does the talking. Sculptural elements are often added, reinforcing the object-ness of the works. While abstract, the paintings seem to embody the corporality of the artist, as if he is making them through his body. The result is aggressive and warm, with a sense of play, determination and discovery.

Driven by a procession of painterly activity, Lewis works forward from the background, culminating in a final gesture, often a sculptural element, that he refers to as the “punctum” borrowed from Roland Barthe’s famous formulation of one piercing gesture. In fact, Lewis punctuates all over the place. Nothing is safe, not the floor, walls or any part of his canvases. Meanings are embedded into each work, like buried clues to inner monologues. The drama of the final mark is reminiscent of Rembrandt’s Jewish Bride, where murky churns of paint hunker in a netherworld that gradually rises to the surface of the canvas, culminating in the final stroke – a kiss of light on a gold band.

Lewis shapes the ways his paintings exist and how they are perceived. Macrame cords cast from aluminum are also hung around his paintings building context and contingencies for the work. These piles of weird objects are twisted and jumbled up as Lewis fuses his life with his exuberantly unrestrained studio experience.

Spencer Lewis (b. 1979 in Hartford, CT; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of California, Los Angeles. His works have been shown in many exhibitions such as at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, Philippines (2023); the K11 Musea, Hong Kong (2023); the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C. (2022); the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (2022); The Mass, Tokyo, Japan (2021); the MAS – Museumaan de Stroom, Antwerp, Belgium (2019); the Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2019); the Art Movement, Los Angeles, CA (2018); and the Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA (2014). Selected collections: National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX; The Marciano Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Jorge M. and Darlene Pérez Collection, Miami, FL; Museu Inimá de Paula, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.