DYLAN LEWIS
DYLAN LEWIS, S382 Fighting Leopard Pair III Maquette
Bronze, 60 x 52 x 60 cm
Dylan Lewis is Africa’s most internationally renowned living figurative sculptor. Collectively Lewis’ bronzes of felines form perhaps the most powerful commentary on nature and wilderness that has been made by any artist of this era. Whilst his cat sculptures have attracted collectors’ attention, Lewis has gradually shifted vision and focus onto the human figure. Elements of humanity began to be hinted at in some early sculptures in the artists development. A growing body of recent work featuring highly charged emotional and erotic human forms now dominate much of this fascinating sculptor’s work.
DYLAN LEWIS, S399 Surveying Cheetah II (Miniature)
Bronze, 20 x 11 x 24 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S409 Running Cheetah III (Miniature)
Bronze, 14 x 10 x 29 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S379 Leopard Chasing Bushbuck Maquette I
Bronze, 114 x 70 x 90 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S383 Lying Leopard Pair II Maquette
Bronze, 55 x 70 x 84 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S408 Surveying Leopard (Miniature)
Bronze, 14 x 10 x 29 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S407 Verreaux Eagle Owl (Miniature)
Bronze, 15 x 8 x 8 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S406 Sitting Leopard Bust (Miniature)
Bronze, 16 x 6 x 7 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S405 Charging Buffalo (Miniature)
Bronze, 15 x 14 x 27 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S400 Charging Black Rhinoceros (Miniature)
Bronze, 13 x 10 x 23 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S401 Elevated Leopard (Miniature)
Bronze, 10 x 7 x 15 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S381 Lion and Lioness Pair Maquette I
62 x 62 x 100 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S391 Walking Leopard (Miniature)
Bronze, 14 x 7.5 x 24 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S380 Walking Cheetah III (Miniature)
Bronze, 13.5 x 4.5 x 20.5 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S389 Elevated Leopard II (Miniature)
Bronze, 21 x 9 x 16 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S398 Buffalo Bull Pair (Miniature)
Bronze, 15.5 x 14 x 24 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S402 Cheetah Head II (Miniature)
Bronze, 13 x 5 x 4.5 cm
IMAGE OF SCULPTURE IN CLAY - STILL TO BE CAST
DYLAN LEWIS, S403 leopard Bust 2003 (Miniature)
Bronze, 16 x 7 x 9 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S404 Cheetah Bust (Miniature)
Bronze, 15 x 6 x 4.5 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S386 Running Cheetah Trio II
Bronze, 180 x 110 x 360 cm
IMAGE OF SCULPTURE IN CLAY - STILL TO BE CAST
DYLAN LEWIS, SH83 (3) Chthonios Monumental I
Bronze, 320 x 100 x 265 cm
The initial manifestation of Dylan Lewis’s Chthonios – a striking image of a maelstrom of forms – emerged following a six-year period of intense self-discovery. Perfectly encompassing the themes of self-actualisation, struggles within human relationships, and striving for liberation from harmful internalised indoctrination, the work concretises the turbulence of human emotions.
During lockdown in 2019, Lewis set to work on producing a monumental incarnation of an earlier work, allowing it to evolve intuitively and organically rather than through exact reproduction. The result is a visceral large-scale sculptural work which recalls Rodin’s magnum opus The Gates of Hell and William Blake’s The Lovers’ Whirlwind. Both of these saw the artists drawing on the evocative imagery of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, but vehemently eschewing any moralising allegory in favour of celebrating the full spectrum of the human experience in all its complexity. With Chthonios, Lewis extends this striking, chaotic imagery to reflect on the agony and ecstasy of trying to connect with the ‘other’ – both other human beings and with the self.
Chthonios marks a significant culmination in the narratives that have underpinned Lewis’s work from the very beginning: the searching for wholeness and self-actualisation against forced familial, cultural, and social conformity. Lewis captures the sense of the sublime that comes from standing on a precipice and witnessing the tumult. It is a view from the eye of a storm, a reckoning with the prospect of being pummelled by a chaotic maelstrom of human emotions and being unsure of whether it will utterly destroy or bring about the intense desire for wholeness.
The sculpture takes the form of large circular arrangement enclosed within a square. This contrasting of the two shapes recurs throughout a diverse array of mandala traditions in a number of world religions, throughout alchemical symbolism, and even in Jungian analytical psychology. Common throughout these various incarnations is the idea of a circle within a square as a symbol of wholeness or totality, contrasting boundlessness with lucidity. This is exactly what Chthonios represents for Dylan Lewis.
- Adapted from an original text by Tim Leibbrandt
Photo credit: Michael Hall / Artist Portrait: Stella Olivier
DYLAN LEWIS, Interrelation VIII Maquette (S-H 25 f)
Bronze, 85 x 36 x 51 cm
Dylan Lewis is Africa’s most internationally renowned living figurative sculptor. Collectively Lewis’ bronzes of felines form perhaps the most powerful commentary on nature and wilderness that has been made by any artist of this era. Whilst his cat sculptures have attracted collectors’ attention, Lewis has gradually shifted vision and focus onto the human figure. Elements of humanity began to be hinted at in some early sculptures in the artists development. A growing body of recent work featuring highly charged emotional and erotic human forms now dominate much of this fascinating sculptor’s work.
DYLAN LEWIS, S436 Lying Cheetah Pair Maquette
Bronze, 32 x 47 x 90 cm
Dylan Lewis is Africa’s most internationally renowned living figurative sculptor. Collectively Lewis’ bronzes of felines form perhaps the most powerful commentary on nature and wilderness that has been made by any artist of this era. Whilst his cat sculptures have attracted collectors’ attention, Lewis has gradually shifted vision and focus onto the human figure. Elements of humanity began to be hinted at in some early sculptures in the artists development. A growing body of recent work featuring highly charged emotional and erotic human forms now dominate much of this fascinating sculptor’s work.
DYLAN LEWIS, S437 Cheetah Pair IV Maquette
Bronze, 46 x 31 x 68 cm
Dylan Lewis is Africa’s most internationally renowned living figurative sculptor. Collectively Lewis’ bronzes of felines form perhaps the most powerful commentary on nature and wilderness that has been made by any artist of this era. Whilst his cat sculptures have attracted collectors’ attention, Lewis has gradually shifted vision and focus onto the human figure. Elements of humanity began to be hinted at in some early sculptures in the artists development. A growing body of recent work featuring highly charged emotional and erotic human forms now dominate much of this fascinating sculptor’s work.
DYLAN LEWIS, S440 Walking Cheetah Maquete V
Bronze, 55 x 36 x 90 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S451 Walking Leopard IV Maquette
Bronze, 24 x 56 x 15 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S452 Surveying Leopard II Maquette
Bronze, 41 x 16 x 34 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S453 Walking Leopard V Maquette
Bronze, 27 x 12 x 45 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S455 Playing Leopard Pair II Maquette
Bronze, 54 x 35 x 36 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S456 Resting Leopard II Maquette
Bronze, 25 x 16 x 33 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S457 Running Leopard Pair I Maquette
Bronze, 32 x 25 x 70 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S458 Leopard Chasing Buck Maquette II Ed 3/15
Bronze, 37.5 x 26.5 x 74 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S459 Leopard Chasing Buck Maquette III
Bronze, 42 x 28 x 49 cm
DYLAN LEWIS, S461 Leopard on Termite Mound Maquette
Bronze, 52.2 x 22 x 33.5 cm
Dylan Lewis is Africa’s most internationally renowned living figurative sculptor. Collectively Lewis’ bronzes of felines form perhaps the most powerful commentary on nature and wilderness that has been made by any artist of this era. Whilst his cat sculptures have attracted collectors’ attention, Lewis has gradually shifted vision and focus onto the human figure. Elements of humanity began to be hinted at in some early sculptures in the artists development. A growing body of recent work featuring highly charged emotional and erotic human forms now dominate much of this fascinating sculptor’s work.
Specialists in contemporary art from South Africa. Established in 1913. South African artists are part of the global conversation. We seek to make their voices heard.