Jo Lewis

'Nearly not there, actually very'

25 April - 25 May

Thursday, Friday 11 - 5, Saturday 11 - 4

and by appointment

Opening with the artist present Saturday 27 April 11 - 4

 Ken artspace is pleased to be showing an exhibition of recent paintings by Jo Lewis.

In these works Jo Lewis distills the use of ink and watercolour to create boldly minimal work. Often singular brush strokes appear illusive, ‘nearly not there’, whilst others in their opacity announce their presence. This apparent simplicity defies these works’ complexity, as collectively they address essential matters; those of light, colour, fluidity of form and most notably the encounter.

Colours meet and ‘sing’ together, and to do this they require the presence of each other. Edges barely touch and hover close.The tension and immediacy of these meetings is held and contained by the space of the paper. Each encounter, as in life, is unpredictable, intimate and unique. This is an ‘actually very’ real matter.

The titles do not act to define, explain or label. They are chosen to instigate yet another form of encounter: word meeting image, opening a space for fleeting resonances of memory and association to emerge.

Penny Skerrett

2024

           'Belonging'.  Watercolour on paper, 2023. 24x27cm.

About the artist

Jo Lewis is a British artist based in London. Trained in Edinburgh and the École des Beaux-Arts, Valence, Jo makes ink drawings and large scale works on paper.

Recently she has had solo shows at the Galerie Valérie Eymeric (Lyon), and at M2 Gallery (London). Recent group shows have included at the Galerie Papiers d'Art (Paris), at the Galerie Vitrine 65 (Paris) at SEE Galerie (Paris) and at La Galerie Villa Balthasar in Valence. In 2020 she was shortlisted for the Edge Arts Visions of Science Prize and invited to present her work at the Drawing Research Network Conference: ‘Temporal Drawing’. In June 2024 she is invited to show her work at the Radical Drawing Symposium in Leeds.

In 2017, supported by the Arts Council, Jo spent a month in residence in southwest China. In 2016, she was commissioned by SCP Seoul to produce a 40m long glass printed work for the front of their flagship store in Beijing. More recently, in 2023, she was commissioned by Raffles Hotels to produce the artwork for 9 bedroom suites in the Old War Office Hotel, Whitehall, London.

Jo Lewis has been a guest lecturer at the London Film School since 2010 and Paris College of Art since 2020. She has a strong commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and has worked on innovative drawing projects with filmmakers, animators, screenwriters, designers and musicians.

Press release

Artists CV