Sanlorenzo, Associated Partner at Art Basel Miami Beach, presents the work of Tony Lewis

Sanlorenzo lands in Miami Beach for the last appointment of the year with the world's leading modern and contemporary art fair. From 1 to 3 December 2022, in the Collectors Lounge of Art Basel Miami Beach, Sanlorenzo presents the work Deep Sky Dark Bright Black &, by the American artist Tony Lewis, curated by Flash Art with the kind collaboration of the MASSIMODECARLO gallery, in the Lounge designed by Piero Lissoni.

Part of the Sanlorenzo Arts platform, an active and interactive reality of projects focusing on urgent issues in today's world, Deep Sky Dark Bright Black & represents the artist's investigation of drawing as a means of communication. For Sanlorenzo, Tony Lewis has conceived three new works at the intersection between semiotics, abstraction, and drawing. These works represent the artist’s investigation of drawing as a means of communication. Lewis uses graphite pencil and paper as privileged mediums to trace and generate linguistic narratives reflecting on gestural expression. 

Deep Sky Dark Bright Black & is an unpublished work consisting of three separate pieces in graphite and putty on paper, a literal and conceptual foundation in the artist’s work. Tony Lewis rubs, wrinkles, and disperses the graphite on the surfaces, allowing the powder to accumulate into an array of textures and patterns. He uses a dynamic shorthand gesture to mix chosen text fragments and words into a drawing, impressing mysterious codes and textured maps on the paper. These drawings are a journey through the roots of drawing involving shape, line, color, and language. The gestural lines appear as abstract marks, while each word delineates a statement about race, power, and communication, often referencing historical facts or situations.

Lewis creates a narrative that shifts constantly between historical and autobiographical. In fact, he often starts from popular cultural texts from which he extracts fragments and recontextualises them, allowing new meanings to emerge. In dismantling language and undermining its authority, Lewis exposes the inequities and inadequacy of existing linguistic and power structures.