Gilbert Lewis

Gilbert Lewis (1945–2023) was a mainstay of the Philadelphia arts scene, having worked for almost twenty years as an art therapist at a Philadelphia retirement home and as a painting instructor at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Lewis was fascinated by the figure, known for his tender and perceptive portraits of young men. As a gay painter, coming up in a time of queer oppression, Lewis’s perspectives on the body offer a beautifully optimistic and sensitive vision. Within Lewis’s paintings exist several planes, both isolating his figures and providing them an invented reality.