Following last week’s release of iconic ‘Reflections in Black: A Reframing’, East Bay-based visual artist Djinn né Carl E. Lewis once again sees his work in a defining moment in American photographic history. Earlier this Fall one of Djinn’s vintage ‘Jinnagraphs’ was, for the first time since its creation in 1988, exhibited at NYU’s Cooper Square Gallery.
With Avant Garde process-driven images in her first book, for the expanded 25th Anniversary version of Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present Dr. Deborah Willis selected an image from one of Mr. Lewis contemporary Facets, the ‘iterations’. Initiated in the early 2000s the ‘iterations’ represent his response to the challenges and opportunities of ‘New Millennium’ tools expanding on his visual language while preserving his originality. The selected image, ‘J-H and the Dreaddie’, utilizes his digital marquetry to combine an element from one of his ‘captured’ laser ‘illusions’ with an image of Reggae Legend, Wailer guitarist Owen ‘Dreddie’ Reid, from his ‘MugFiles’ facet.
An autodidactic visual artist since 1979 Mr. Lewis captured light-oriented imagery on still, fine grain film film, with an analog camera, 6×8 foot moving molten glass and 20×40 foot live, dynamic laser ‘illusions’. Photographic images from various Facets of his 45 year oeuvre are in the collections of the Amon Carter Museum, Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and New York City Public Library’s Schomburg Collection.
“My contemporary New Surrealist digital works emulate the words of Joan Miro, “I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”, and echoes Kandinsky’s ambition to create ‘visual music’.”, states Djinn.
His creative practice spans the gamut of Art and Design disciplines bridging the traditional and post-modern worlds of technology while disregarding the boundaries of processes and materials. Though his exhibition record remains minimal Carl’s commitment to advancing the disciplines of Art, Photography, Film, and to developing new models for AR/VR education, is evidenced in the breadth and depth of his body of work and concepts. The exhibition and book reaffirm Djinn Lewis’ position within the continuum of experimental photography.
