Between the years 2006 – 2015, Lewis created the Beijing Booster series of acrylic on linen and paper paintings in Beijing, China when he began to work in his new studio space, Oasis. The new space situated in the renowned 798 Art Zone afforded him the opportunity to build upon (boost!) his previous String Theory series. Whereas the String Theory series was inspired by physics, the Booster series is crafted through his interactions with Asian, Jamaican, American, and global traditions of painting, and to both American and Jamaican jazz music yielding a definitive cross-cultural aesthetic.

As Michelle Dao once said of Lewis, “An artist with Jamaican roots, Lewis studied painting in the United States before taking on Eastern artistic interests in China. Lewis aims to collapse not only the modulations of time between the past and present traditions in his art but also the varied artistic and intellectual histories that resonate with his identity as a Black American working to synthesize with the East.”  

In his Beijing Booster series, comprised of nearly 500 works, (for this exhibition we get a sampling) Lewis invokes his own “personal scripting,” which embodies the flavor of grand master painters like Ba Da Shan Ren. The corkscrew linear structure, surging molecular forms, and bold color harmonies punctuating his canvases are a response to the joyfulness of the people, light, color, and rhythm of the spirit found in his hometown, and serve to augment the human visual perception of music and art. The calligraphic quality of the work recalls Asian scroll work and lays bare Lewis’ exquisite synthesis of Asian aesthetics.

Designed to be sequenced into a larger grid, the individual modules also function individually; their form and identity change depending on architectural issues. Lewis's use of the grid creates a sense of order in community, culture, and society as an extension of his own act of painting. For Lewis, painting takes on a performative, ritualistic nature. The creative act involves, Lewis once said, “a series of problems that one encounters on the way that must be resolved formally, aesthetically, and philosophically, to arrive at something meaningful that perhaps can affect change in other human beings. My approach to painting is not unlike an emergency that must be addressed at the moment; it is a matter of life and death where everything matters.”

Why do we need art during a time when war rages overseas you might ask? Fundamentally, art is not superfluous. Artists offer cultural solidarity, but also remind us that civilizations “cannot exist without the discipline of imagination,” writes critic Margo Jefferson. Art offers ways of seeing and ordering the world. It evinces the importance of imagination and meaning in life. Lewis’ Beijing Booster Paintings offer the weary soul a domain that interrupts the first-person singular, where music and ripples of color become the language to which everyone can respond and, perhaps, affect change.

PETER WAYNE LEWIS was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He received his M.A. in Painting from San Jose State University in California and became a tenured Professor of Painting at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston for 25 years, including a stint as Chairman of the Department. He maintains an ambitious studio practice, splitting his time between the New York Metro area and Beijing, China, where he is also the Director of Oasis Gallery-Beijing. He is also a Director on the Advisory Board for WhiteBox, Harlem, NYC. Peter has exhibited extensively in the US, Africa, Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. Recent solo exhibitions include The Delaware Contemporary (2019-2020) in Wilmington, DE; a survey of paintings produced in his studio in Beijing at UCCA - Ullens Center of Contemporary Art in Beijing (curated by Philip Tinari, 2016); and MOCA-North Miami (2015) as well as gallery exhibitions on three continents.

He is in numerous public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad. His curatorial projects include, White Anxieties, WhiteBox Harlem, NYC; Viewpoints: 20 Years of Adderly, MassArt Art Museum, Massachusetts University of Art & Design, Boston, MA; 4321, Matthias Kuper Galleries Stuttgart / Beijing, Beijing, China; Beijing Biennial, National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, China Exhibition of International Artists, Inside-Out Art Museum (IOAM), Beijing, China; Olympic Fine Art Exhibition Convention Center Beijing, China; Grand Opening Sunshine International Art Museum Beijing, China; Queen Nanny of the Maroons, In conjunction with the Embassy of Jamaica, Two Lines Gallery, 798 District, Beijing, China; Perfume Painting, Two Lines Gallery, 798 District, Beijing, China; Boston High Tea #2 Master Print+ In conjunction with Massachusetts College of Art Foundation, Two Lines Gallery, 798 District, Beijing, China; and, Marathon, Two Lines Gallery, 798 District, Beijing, China.