Spencer Lewis, Untitled, 2025, oil, acrylic, spray paint, and ink on jute, 84 x 62 inches

Spencer Lewis
Bodies

August 16 through September 17, 2025
Opens Saturday, August 16, 6–8pm

Harper’s East Hampton
87 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937
Daily, 10am–6pm

Mama Said Knock You Out

Sits
In the corner
If it’s free
The sofa 
With no one else on it
The empty spot
In the least crowded space
Somewhere he can simply and quietly be
Safely 
Be
Safely be. 

He smiles
More often than not
In his space 
Safely being
Exudes 
Warmth, kindness, generosity
A spirit of friendship
Love
Like Pooh Bear
Or Kung Fu Panda 
Safely being
Everyone’s great pal
Everyone’s hug.

And yet. 
And yet. 
And yet. 

And motherfucking yet 

In that space
And in his peace and his love
In his every smile
Laugh
Gentle hand and sparkling eye
In every gesture
There is weight
Weight of his years 
His history 
His life
Weight of his heart
Mind

Spirit
Soul
Weight of trauma pain rage. 
Trauma 
Pain
Rage
Weight 
And in that weight
There is violence
Brutal straightforward aggressive deliberate shameless violence.

So many things exist
Beyond words
Love
God
Truth
Fear
Whatever we have
Doesn’t get close
And so
The wise and the gifted and the beautiful and the foolhardy
Seek other methods
Gestures
Sound
Movement
Paint
And from the many things that exist
Beyond
Comes comes comes. 

Sweet Man
Kind Man
Beautiful Man 
Brutal straightforward aggressive deliberate shameless violent
Man 
Love
God
Truth
Fear
Violence
Heart
Mind
Spirit
Soul
Violence. 

—James Frey

Spencer Lewis (b. 1979, Hartford, CT) received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2002, and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008. Lewis’s work has been the subject of numerous solo presentations at venues including Fundación La Nave Salinas, Ibiza (2025); MASSIMODECARLO, Paris, Milan and Hong Kong (2025, 2023 and 2022); Harper’s, New York and East Hampton (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2017); Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna (2024 and 2022); Vito Schnabel Gallery, New York and St. Moritz (2023, 2022 and 2021); Josh Lilley, London (2022); Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels (2021); and CANADA, New York (2021). Most recently, he has participated in group exhibitions at MASSIMODECARLO, London and Milan (2025 and 2022); National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC (2024); The Ranch, Montauk (2023); K11 Museum, Hong Kong (2023); Metropolitan Museum of Manila, PH (2023); Harper’s, Los Angeles and East Hampton (2022, 2021, 2020, and 2018); and WOAW Gallery, Hong Kong (2022). His work has been acquired by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Museu Inimá de Paula, Belo Horizonte, BR; and National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Lewis lives and works in Los Angeles.

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Spencer Lewis, Untitled, 2025, oil, acrylic, spray paint, and ink on jute, 24.75 x 20.75 inches (framed)

Spencer Lewis: Untitled
Book Launch
Friday, September 12, 2025, 6–8pm

Harper's Books
504 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011

Please join Harper's Books on Friday, September 12, 6–8pm, for the launch of Spencer Lewis: Untitled, published by Zolo Press, featuring over 200 color images from the artist's first decade of work. With texts by Barry Schwabsky, Kendra Walker, and a dialogue between Lewis and Chromeo's David Macklovitch. Published in an edition of 1000 copies with silkscreened and foiled wrappers.

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