Jane Lewis

Jane Lewis has been obsessively making images in a variety of media for most of her life. She deals pictorially with the ambiguous and subtly surreal, prompting questions of time, place and reason. Her aim has been to develop technically immaculate paintings which often contain subversive imagery, a paradox at once seducing and challenging the viewer. The human figures and objects depicted, the stillness and impression of time arrested, are part of a personal narrative expressing the relationship between conscious thoughts and an inner world. There can be a sense of a story within, perhaps a simmering violence concealed beneath apparent calm, pictures within pictures are a frequent motif. The human figure predominates, and there are other objects that occur regularly: masks and theatrical hats, animals, still lifes of fruit or geometrical shapes, pieces of classical sculpture. Masks and costumes serve both to conceal identities and reveal character and meaning.