Bio
Henry Lewis
In constant determination to perfect his craft, tattooer and painter Henry Lewis lives to work and works to live. His mix-matched taste of art, culture and music, the latter influenced by his late father, jazz musician Juno Lewis, mirrors his experience as a bicultural kid, the fourth of fourteen children growing up in the melting pot of Los Angeles. Born in Pasadena, California in 1977, Henry Lewis moved to San Francisco in 2000 to pursue a career in tattooing, illustration, and painting. He draws on a broad range of influences, which includes fellow tattooers and contemporaries, such as Don Hardy, Mike Davis and Jason Schroeder to the art historical works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Peter Paul Reubens, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Henry’s creative lust is drawn from his personal experiences as well as those of his peers and strangers alike; he is inspired by themes of strength, passion, love and loss. Lewis’s paintings are breathing collections of life experiences, culture clashes and raw emotion elegantly draped in Baroque silk shadows.
Lewis has worked as a tattooer for the past 17 years and is a featured artist at the world-renowned tattoo studio, Skull & Sword in San Francisco, and Incognito Tattoo and Memoir Tattoo in Los Angeles. He has exhibited at galleries nationwide.
2013
"Contemporary Surrealists: Mike Davis & Henry Lewis" Varnish Fine Art (March/April)
2012
“Neon Nights” Henry Lewis & Lango Olivera, 111 Minna, San Francisco CA (March)
“Shinkansen Conspiracy: A Group Exhbition presented by LAST GASP” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco CA (July)
“14th Street Freak Out” Electric Ave/483 14th St., San Francisco CA (February)
“Relics of the New World” Goorin Bros Cassel Gallery, San Francisco CA (August)
2011
“The Absence of Light” Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City CA (Mar 19 – Apr 6)
“Positive Negative” Cassel Gallery, San Francisco CA (April)
“Moment” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA (March)
“The Safehouse Show Two” Safehouse Atelier, San Francisco CA (June)
2010
“Henry Lewis & Mike Davis”, Fecal Face Dot Gallery, SF CA (Jan 9 – Feb 6)
“Everyday: CA Tattoo Artists” Group Show, 111 Minna, SF CA (March)
“Huckleberry Finn: Small Talks” CCA Wattis Institute San Francisco CA (December)
“Scream With Me” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco CA (October)
“Year Of The Tiger” Seventh Son Tattoo, San Francisco CA (June)
2009
"Family First" White Walls, San Francisco CA (January)
“The Circle of Life” 1:AM Gallery-hosted by ArtNowSF, San Francisco CA (December)
2008
“Captain and Commander: Henry Lewis & Keli Reule” 111 MinnaGallery, San Francisco CA (Oct 2-Nov 1)
“Burning at Both Ends: Henry Lewis & Regino Gonzales” Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City CA (Jan 5 – Jan 23)
“Titanium Expose” Fecal Face Dot Gallery, San Francisco CA(November)
“A Benefit Show” Fecal Face Dot Gallery, San Francisco CA (July)
“Vinyl Apocolypse” Lower Haters Gallery, San Francisco CA (June)
2007
“SAD SONGS: The Art of Henry Lewis” Lower Haters Gallery, San Francisco CA (Sept-Oct)
“Skin Vandals” Anno Domini Gallery, San Jose CA (October)
“All Star Hustla’z ” White Walls, San Francisco CA (December)
2006
“Octonarius Lunius: a group show” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco CA (June)
“Fecal Face Show @ 111 Minna” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco CA (August)
“Guest Artists Show” Receiver Gallery, San Francisco CA (August)
“Art for the House: Auction and Sale” The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco CA (November)
“All Star Hustla’z 2” White Walls, San Francisco CA (November)
“111 @ 111” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco CA (December)
2005
“Wet Paint- A Day in the Life of a Painting” Shooting Gallery, San Francisco CA (August)
“Secret Bedtime Stories” White Walls, San Francisco, CA (July-Aug.)