About Art

190. Spencer Lewis


Listen Later

Spencer Lewis, born 1979 in Hartford, Connecticut, lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of California, Los Angeles. Known for his gestural paintings on cardboard and jute, Lewis 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. In a podcast recorded live in his LA studio, he and Zuckerman discuss wanting positive things, paint as a fluid object, seeing and feeling distance between ideas, cities, being courageous, finding novelty, what art is really good at, timelessness, how artists want to be free, having an anxious attachment style, why people like complexity, what feels big, the space of color, how and why you need a studio, how to make great paintings, his phrase “for me to make a painting,” how art is still about beauty, remembering that making art will feel bad, and how gratitude works every time!

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

About ArtBy Heidi Zuckerman

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

83 ratings


More shows like About Art

View all
The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,788 Listeners

Design Matters with Debbie Millman by Design Matters Media

Design Matters with Debbie Millman

1,231 Listeners

10% Happier with Dan Harris by 10% Happier

10% Happier with Dan Harris

12,746 Listeners

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso by Higher Ground

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

1,443 Listeners

Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel by Esther Perel Global Media

Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel

14,883 Listeners

The Week in Art by The Art Newspaper

The Week in Art

211 Listeners

This Jungian Life Podcast by Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano

This Jungian Life Podcast

1,654 Listeners

Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast by David Zwirner

Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast

426 Listeners

City Arts & Lectures by City Arts & Lectures

City Arts & Lectures

394 Listeners

Talk Art by Russell Tovey and Robert Diament

Talk Art

500 Listeners

The Great Women Artists by Katy Hessel

The Great Women Artists

527 Listeners

The Art Angle by Artnet News

The Art Angle

354 Listeners

Poetry Unbound by On Being Studios

Poetry Unbound

3,588 Listeners

A brush with... by The Art Newspaper

A brush with...

144 Listeners

Overthink by Ellie Anderson, Ph.D. and David Peña-Guzmán, Ph.D.

Overthink

444 Listeners