Dylan Lewis is Africa’s most internationally renowned living figurative sculptor. Lewis’s primary inspiration is 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 primaeval, 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.

Now widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost sculptors of the animal form, Lewis initially focused on the big cats. Collectively, his bronzes of felines form perhaps the most powerful commentary on nature and wilderness that has been made by any artist of this era. His cats are far more profound works of art than mere contemporary animalia bronzes. Indeed, they fully interrogate the lithe, almost boneless, grace of these apex predators – creatures that impart by their very presence a palpable tension to any true wilderness. Lewis’s cats are imbued with a unique, dense energy by this artist who, through a lifetime of immersing himself in pristine natural environments, somehow contrives to elevate his sculpture into a homage not only to the singular animals but indeed to their ancient lineages. Lewis’s bronzes fully capture the essence of an organism perfectly adapted to its habitat – the bodily expression of DNA adapting to aeons of inexorable environmental change. In the presence of his art, it does not take long to be affected by the rare brilliance and self-confident virtuosity honed by decades of work both in nature and his studio.  

Where animals were once the artist’s vehicle to express intense emotion, Lewis has gradually shifted vision and focus onto the human figure. Following on the trajectory of earlier themes, Lewis has used the human figure to explore the human psyche – our relationship with our inner wildness. Highly charged emotional human forms have dominated much of this fascinating sculptor’s artistic output since 2007. In exploring male and female figures – with elements of animal anatomy sometimes incorporated – Lewis faces the vital internal battle between our wildness and tameness, ultimately revelling in humankind’s intuitive, authentic nature. Says the artist: ‘The cats held sexuality, violence and power at a time when I couldn’t.’ With hindsight, Lewis’s sequence of sculptures may be seen as illustrating the artist’s journey towards self-acceptance and non-judgement.

Lewis’s sculpture has been avidly collected internationally for decades and this has resulted in two auctions at Christies being wholly dedicated to Lewis’s bronzes. The last Christie’s sale in 2018 achieved a 100% sale result. Dylan Lewis lives in Stellenbosch, South Africa. He has developed a unique sculpture garden where some of his most celebrated sculptures may be viewed within the natural environment that intellectually nourishes their maker.