Artist Statement

Richard Lewis was born in Detroit in 1966. He started drawing when he was four. When he was 10, his godmother told him to study his family and go into the next room and draw. That started him looking at faces. He graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1985. He earned his B.F.A. from College for Creative Studies and his Master’s degree from Yale School of Art. He came back to Detroit, drove a cab and taught African American art history. He moved to NYC in 1995 to be an artist-in-residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem. He did a residency at Henry Street Settlement the following year, and worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art two years after that. He moved back home to Detroit in 2002. In 2011 he was awarded a Kresge Foundation Fellowship. He continues his commitment to his art to this day.