Eva Lewis
Lewis is currently in Dayton, Ohio. She graduated with her MFA from Boston University in 2022, the same year she had the opportunity to have her first Solo Show at the Laisun Keane Gallery based in Boston. She received an Elizabeth Greenshields Grant and moved to Dayton, Ohio, from Boston, Massachusetts. Lewis moved back to her hometown to explore further her closest friendships with the women in her community. She is currently exploring ways of representing the people dearest to her through their shared moments. Lewis documents their personal items, expressions, movements, and more to place personality and interest in these figures. The way these women portray lust, playfulness, and charm inspires her. Lewis has been painting on the top of a red-toned surface, forcing a new exploration of paint and light with each piece. Lewis is in Studio Visit’s Volumes 49&50 and has shown in New York, Boston, Cincinnati, and Dayton.
Collect Bean: What does growth mean to you?
Eva Lewis: Growth has shown itself to me by patiently working through the same ideas over time and seeing the different approaches that come with consistency. The studio is a fun place for growth because you often don’t notice it until you step back. Every once in a while, the development feels quick, like it comes all at once. But in reality, the nurturing you have done to yourself and your work helps push the dramatic changes or “aha” moments. I want growth to be on paper, given instructions on the best way to water myself and how much sunlight I need to receive to get where I want to be. But, much like painting, growth is exploring, learning, and connecting. It is the beauty of time taking what it needs to help you blossom.
Collect Bean: Where are you currently finding inspiration?
Eva Lewis: Currently, I have been finding inspiration in moments with my friends. I have always been interested in portraying the figure and am highly intrigued by the storytelling in Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings. I would pick apart Renaissance works by fixating on the moment their hands reach towards one another or their arms twisted to grab a symbolic object. Similarly, I have been finding myself creating paintings that are cropped versions of more significant stories. But these smaller moments tell about how my friends hold things, what objects they find themselves with, etc. The paintings are usually directly taken from moments I am experiencing with friends. I find so much inspiration in portraying my friends how I see them. I love how I have connected with women; the freedom, confidence, and love I find with them has intrigued me.
Collect Bean: How does where you grew up influence your work?
Eva Lewis: Growing up, I felt that I romanticized everything around me. I grew up across from cornfields and woods, with suburbs tucked in between farmlands—just a 20-minute drive from Dayton, Ohio. Everything had a small-town feel, and you knew everything about everyone. As I got older, I found people that I felt more akin to just beyond my suburban limits. While this was not a significant change in placement as I moved from suburb to city, it allowed me to romanticize my area differently and appreciate the city of Dayton more. The Midwestern influences enchant me. I love driving an hour to a manufactured lake to picnic, smoke, and chat: house parties, friends with farms, gallery pop-ups in garages, and more. I find there are so many more things the community has to come together to create activity and interest, which builds more to the charm. People maximize their homes with trinkets, stuffed animals, and décor. There is a sense of helping one another, living within your means, shopping locally, and making the small town you are in a home. While my work is not directly from where I grew up, it is influenced by where and who I made a home as I grew older.
Collect Bean: What role does color play in your practice?
Eva Lewis: The red-toned canvas and palette I chose help me express how I find these people so intriguing. It helps draw in the viewer and supports me in exploring the situation through a straightforward idea of “rose-colored” lenses. It allows me to create light as a character. By using oil on top of the canvas, I am using additive and reductive processes to find the light in the work. The red also introduces another element of interest and surrealism into the work. It is directly from reality but transformed into a world where these women are only objectified by their choosing. It allows me to exploit the people I love dearly by creating a ruby world for us to lose ourselves in.
Collect Bean: What is something that you do to stay focused?
Eva Lewis: Music is an essential part of my practice. In graduate school, I was insistent on only listening to music made by women because the lyrics about their personal experiences or interests were incredibly inspiring. I only wanted to hear music from a feminine viewpoint in the studio. I still listen to the different women-centric playlists I created. But now, I find myself listening to playlists I have curated with whatever energy I have that day. I find it comforting to have music playing; it helps me get lost in storytelling worlds. As long as there is music, I feel I could do just about anything for hours.
