SEPTEMBER 21, 2022. GRACE EBERT
“Convergence” (2022), acrylic on wood, 24 x 30 inches. All images © Paul Lewin,

For Jamaica-born, Miami-based artist Paul Lewin, painting portraits of resilient, unafraid women is a way to process and manifest a lineage. “My work tells the story of me,” he says in a statement. “Each of my paintings is created in a process similar to dreaming. Meditation and dreams were very important tools in the creative process of my ancestors. I like to think of it as traveling inside to the place where my inspirations, emotions, genetic memory, and unconscious thoughts all collide.”

Left: “Proxima Centauri” (2022), acrylic on wood, 24 x 30 inches. Right: “Ritual” (2022), acrylic on wood, 24 x 30 inches

Working in neutral tones and colors evocative of the tropics, Lewin envisions figures within the speculative realm of Afrofuturism. Geometric motifs and symbols reference diasporic folklore and ritual and adorn the subjects’ faces and torsos. […]

Lewin with his mural at UC Santa Cruz

More: Folkloric Portraits in Acrylic by Artist Paul Lewin Envision an Afrofuturistic World