Installation view of “Tau Lewis: Spirit Level,” Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024. | Photo by Mel Taing, Courtesy ICA Boston
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
SINCE CHILDHOOD, Tau Lewis (b. 1993) has collected materials and artifacts imbued with history and personal meaning. Pulling from this assiduously assembled library, Lewis creates soft sculptures, masks, quilts, and other assemblage works. The artist’s methods honor diasporic traditions and connect with African American artists from the South, fellow self-taught practitioners who transform the ordinary materials of daily life into artistic wonders.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Lewis lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. “Tau Lewis: Spirit Level” at ICA Boston is her first solo museum exhibition in the United States. The show features a new body of work—five figurative sculptures and a circular quilt composed of architectural forms installed on the floor. Through a process of hand-sewing and carving, the sculptures are formed, layered, and draped with an array of fabrics and objects, including remnants of previously worn clothing, deconstructed leather jackets, scraps of parachute, photographs, beads, sea shells, sand dollars, drift wood, and found metal, glass, and ceramics. Monumental, otherworldly beings, the works have the presence of guardian figures.
“The evocative objects Lewis gathers and transforms carry their own spirit and energy and connect her work to the social, cultural, and physical landscapes that she moves through, collects from, and inhabits,” the exhibition announcement stated. “Lewis describes these different landscapes as ‘Black geographies.’ These geographies—oceanic, terrestrial, extraterrestrial—are the areas where Lewis’s otherworldly beings live.” CT
“Tau Lewis: Spirit Level” is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in Boston, Mass., from Aug. 29, 2024-Jan. 20, 2025
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Installation view of “Tau Lewis: Spirit Level,” Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024. | Photo by Mel Taing, Courtesy ICA Boston
Installation view of “Tau Lewis: Spirit Level,” Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024. Shown at center, TAU LEWIS, “The Handle of the Axe,” 2024 (steel; enamel paint; acrylic paint and finisher; recycled leather, suede, shearling, shagreen, and assorted fabric; leather, fabric, and natural dyes; rawhide; seashells; coral bone; pearl; stones; assorted beads; assorted found objects; gold and silk thread; coated nylon thread; and coated cotton thread); at right, TAU LEWIS, “The Reaper,” 2024 (steel; enamel paint; acrylic paint and finisher; recycled leather, suede, snakeskin, goatskin, and assorted
fabric; leather, fabric, and natural dyes; seashells; conch; coral bone; stones; assorted found objects; wire; jute; gold and silk thread; coated nylon thread; and coated cotton thread). | Photo by Mel Taing, Courtesy ICA Boston
TAU LEWIS, “The Last Transmission,” 2024 (recycled leather and suede; cotton canvas; acrylic paint and finisher; leather, fabric, and natural dyes; assorted found metal, wood, ceramic, and glass objects; wire; beads; seashells; coated nylon thread and coated cotton thread; Overall diameter approximately
240 inches / 609.6 cm). | Courtesy the artist
Installation view of “Tau Lewis: Spirit Level,” Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024. Shown, at left, TAU LEWIS, “The Doula,” 2024 (steel; enamel paint; acrylic paint and finisher; recycled leather, suede, and assorted fabric; leather, fabric, and natural dyes; seashells; coated nylon thread; and coated cotton thread). | Photo by Mel Taing, Courtesy ICA Boston
FIND MORE about Tau Lewis on her website and Instagram
BOOKSHELF
“Tau Lewis” is the artist’s first monograph. Published to accompany the first U.S. solo museum exhibition of Canadian artist Tau Lewis at ICA Boston, the volume includes text by exhibition curator Jeffrey De Blois, a foreword by Jill Medvedow, and Lewis in conversation with artist Lonnie Holley. “Tau Lewis: Vox Populi, Vox Dei” was published last year on the occasion of the artist’s exhibition at 52 Walker gallery in New York, the David Zwirner space led by Ebony L. Haynes.
