| Evan Lewis
has been creating and exhibiting his outdoor kinetic wind-powered
sculpture since 1984. Ever since childhood Lewis has been interested in
movement, especially when manifested in kinetic art. Lewis’s process of
creating wind-powered sculpture started with basic explorations of various
materials and techniques. Years of trial and error subsequently
followed.
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| Most of his
early sculptures were stand-alone pieces that were exercises in
composition and form. Lewis sites the fauna and flora of
Southern California
as his important early influences. Man-made structures like bridges and
radio-towers Lewis carefully observed also made a visible imprint on his
work. The initial influences were later expanded by study, both formal and
informal, of art and architecture. During his formative years, Lewis had
ample opportunities to work out technical challenges posed by severe
weather conditions.
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| These
challenges effectively informed the choice of materials in Lewis’s
sculptures. The first pieces made of wood proved to be too weak to
withstand strong and gusty winds. Subsequently, Lewis progressed to using
metals in creating his artwork. After years of experimentation, two metals
emerged as clear favorites – stainless steel and aluminum. These
materials were not only strong enough to support Lewis’s increasingly
ambitious designs, they also proved to be very suitable for a new arena
Lewis was entering – art for public spaces.
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| In
1988 Lewis was commissioned to make a wind/sound sculpture for Expo 88 in
Australia
. The piece consisted of fourteen identical sculptures temporarily
installed in the
Brisbane
River
. Since longevity was not expected in this case, Lewis also experimented
with the use of textiles.
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| In
1992 Lewis designed and built a sculptural weather vane and fountain for a
waste water treatment plant in
Phoenix
,
AZ.
During that period Lewis also won a number of awards including the best of
show award in the Seventh Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and
Exhibition at Appalachian State University in
Boone
,
NC
, for his piece, Sound Asylum, where he was exploring sound as a medium in
artwork. This piece was a small pavilion that a viewer could enter and sit
down to observe the inner workings of the piece and to enjoy the sound
dimension of the sculpture.
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| The
idea of the sculpture as an architectural space the viewer can enter
became very important in Lewis subsequent work. In 1994, Lewis was
commissioned to create a thirty-foot high pavilion with large spinning
elements in stainless steel and aluminum resting atop eight concrete
columns.
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| Warner
Bros. Studios presented Lewis with an interesting challenge in 1995 when
they asked him to create several wind-powered sculptures for their motion
picture Twister.
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More
large-scale public commissions followed: In 1999 Lewis installed a fourty-foot
high sculpture for the campus of the
Northern
Illinois
University
in
De Kalb
commissioned by the Capital Development Board of Illinois. In 2003 Lewis
completed a large sculpture pavilion for the Southern Illinois University
at Edwardsville. A year later he was selected from 117 finalists to create
a large kinetic piece for downtown
East Lansing
in
Michigan
. Lewis has also exhibited at several Pier Walk shows in
Chicago
and many other sculpture shows nationally.
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| In 2006
Lewis installed a monumental kinetic sculpture pavilion for the
Art
District
in
Chattanooga
, Tennesee. Two of his pieces were recently purchased for permanent city
art collections – one by the City of
Sarasota
in
Florida
and the other by the City of
Green Bay
in
Wisconsin
.
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| Lewis is
currently working on a suite of seven sculptural spires for the
McCormick
Center
in
Chicago
and on another commission by the Capital Development Board of Illinois.
This newest piece for the campus of the Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale
is propelling Lewis into a new territory. In this sculpture Lewis combines
an outdoor wind-powered piece with an indoor ceiling-hung mobile that will
be powered by the motion of the exterior piece through a series of shafts
and gears.
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| After the
completion of these two projects, Lewis will start planning for another
large-scale public piece – a memorial sculpture pavilion commissioned by
the City of
Toledo
. This sculpture will be the point of interest in a new public park to be
completed in 2010.
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| Evan Lewis
grew up mostly in
Santa Barbara
,
California
. He received his BFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago in 1989 and has been living and working in
Chicago
ever since.
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