Lewis Andrews moved to Leeds in 2016 to study a BA(Hons) in Fine Art at Leeds Arts University. After graduating in 2019, Lewis continues to work in Leeds. In 2022, Lewis completed his Postgraduate Fine Arts Degree also at Leeds Arts University, graduating with a Masters Degree in the Creative Arts. During his Master’s Degree, Lewis’s practice became deeply focused on the methodology of translating information and data from sources within science into artworks. Lewis has continued to work and build upon this method in his work constructing a theory of working called ‘The Informative Encounter’.
Lewis has participated in exhibitions up and down the country and internationally with many notable achievements. Lewis held his first solo show '186,000mi/s' whilst studying at Leeds Arts University in 2018 at Wharf Chambers, Leeds, UK. Lewis was one of the artists picked to participate in the Aon Community Art Awards program 2019 running through till 2021 with his oceanic sublime photography work displayed in Aon Headquarters, London. In November 2020, Lewis was selected to participate in the Mayes Creative Watching the Sun: Virtual Residency alongside other artists with an interest in astronomy and ancient astrology. Lewis went on to participate in two more virtual arts-science residences with Mayes Creative and work from the residency was included in a publication which was then included within the Royal Astronomy Society Archive. To name a few of his achievements as Lewis continues to work from his studio based in Leeds, UK.
Lewis’s work acts as a conduit between the realms of art and science. The supply of information from science fuels the production of visual material which in turn communicates the knowledge of a scientific endeavour. In short, Lewis’s work focuses on dealing with complex thoughts, ideas and facts within nature and science. Some explore those in which we seem to be overshadowed and overpowered in comparison by the vast distances, size or quantities. Others investigate moments of extreme power, creation and rebirth on a molecular scale or on a scale comparable to that of the universe. Questioning our relationships, place and role within the universe, environment and natural spaces.
'SMBH' arose after working on the 'Singularity' series of artworks during the 'Scientia' project. ‘SMBH’ connects the distant monsters hiding in the cosmos with the delicate paradise of our pale blue dot. Astronomers managed to photograph not one but two shadows of black holes in recent years. A great achievement of not only science but humanity. For humanity, to photograph a black hole is not only a quest for the actual photograph. It’s a quest to travel to the edge of the unknown at the event horizon and to stare face to face with an object that currently turns of understanding of physics upside down. 'SMBH' differs from the 'Singularity' works as they attempt to look at the true titans of the cosmos hiding within the centres of galaxies. Their size becomes just as mindboggling as attempting to explain them with our understanding of physics.
Breaking down the distance between these colossal gravitational machines and the viewer, 'SMBH' has been created with the use of gravity on a much smaller scale. Created using a careful set up of light, water and gravity and then through various digital editing, the work attempts to open a window up close and personal with some of the true titans of the cosmos. Somewhere even light cannot escape if it strays too close.
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