JAMES LEWIS' practice is centralized around a fascination with process and value. He often uses materials that suit the conceptual impetus of that particular project. Lewis' work bears a similarity to Conceptual Art Practitioners such as Robert Barry and Ryan Gander for their documentation of a particular happening or thought process.

His work also takes influence from artists such as Chris Burden and Bas Jan Ader. Lewis considers the latter two artists to have a notion of Romanticism within their work. He tries to prevent his Conceptual Art practice from being cold and stale. He does this by trying to place a narrative within his work, be it through photographically documenting his physical capabilities during a project or saving his income so that he can produce a series of neon signs. Lewis plays upon a personally devised formula of achieving a finalized “art object”¹. Which often means he financially or physically suffers for his art practice.

The Value and Worth Series is a direct portrayal of this sentiment and functions as a tool to understand works within the same medium throughout Contemporary Art practice.

1 Lippard, L. Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972, New York: Praege, 1973.