Dylan Lewis is widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost sculptors of the animal form. Born in Johannesburg in 1964, he is now based in Stellenbosch, just outside Cape Town, where he has established the Dylan Lewis Studio and Sculpture Garden.
His father was an accomplished sculptor, his mother and his grandmother were painters, and his great-grandfathers were an architect and cabinetmaker respectively. He began his career as a painter, but later turned to sculpture.
Dylan initially focused on the big cats (cheetahs, leopards and lions) as symbols of wilderness, then moved into the human figure to explore the forgotten inner wild spaces of the human psyche. His primary inspiration is the wilderness. At one level his bronze sculptures celebrate the power and movement of Africa´s life forms; at another the textures he creates speak of the continent´s primeval, rugged landscapes and their ancient rhythms. He works intensively from life, filling books with sketches, notes and drawings. By referring to these in the solitude of his studio, he is able to reproduce the subject´s physical form while exploring their more abstract, deeper meaning
His international career spans two decades and includes exhibitions in Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Houston and San Francisco, as well as numerous solo exhibitions in London, where he is among the few living artists to have held solo auctions at Christie’s.
