Lewis Hammond

This exhibition will mark Lewis Hammond’s (b. 1987, Wolverhampton) first museum presentation in the UK, featuring a new body of paintings developed specifically for The Hepworth Wakefield.

A graduate of the Royal Academy School in 2017, Hammond’s practice reflects a fascination with the materiality of oil paint and the evocative power of dark, earthy tones. His charged, fantastical paintings interweave mythological elements with contemporary themes and explore the interplay between personal relationships and global socio-political events. Drawing inspiration from Old Masters like Caravaggio, Velåzquez, and Goya, he creates haunting, statuesque figures that traverse boundaries between the individual and the archetypal.

At The Hepworth Wakefield, Hammond will explore the theme of home and what defines a place of belonging. He examines how various states of existence can strip us of this sense, leaving us to confront the dislocation and alienation that arise from being without a place to call home. Hammond’s paintings will serve as love letters to both notions of home and to those who are without one.

As an artist who has spent several years based in Berlin – and is now returning to the UK to establish his studio – this exhibition serves as both a homecoming and a reflection on themes of disconnection and ways of coming together.