I talked to Nate Lewis, a nurse turned artist, about one of his new works for T Magazine’s On View series
Lewis worked in the intensive care unit of hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area for nine years before leaving the medical field in 2017 to pursue a career as an artist.
To create the works for his solo show at Fridman Gallery in New York, Lewis invited professional dancers into his studio and photographed them in motion. The final product is a collection of carved sculptural pieces on paper, which incorporate prints of those images along with elements of frottage, sculpture and drawings in graphite and ink. This series was the first time he collaborated with two dancers at once.
“I started thinking of dance and movement as a form of language.”
“I played with the compositions of the dancers, thinking about how they’re interacting almost like Chinese characters or Arabic script.”
“I think about imagery in terms of process. The CT and M.R.I. scans I worked with in the I.C.U. were taken in a series of slices from the front to the back.”
“The repeated graphite lines feel like sound waves. They remind me of diagnostic imagery, like EKG rhythms and brain rhythms, that I would see working in the hospital.”
“My understanding of art came through the kinetics of my body. I was an athlete my entire life. I’ve realized the way I understand movement and rhythm and tension and composition is through sports. And that’s such a strength. It’s just pure expression.”
