Images and text come together in new show

Simon Lewty’s exhibition The SIGNificance of Writing runs at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum from Friday April 29 to Sunday July 10.

Lewty was born in Sutton Coldfield and now lives and works in Leamington. His work combines evocative images with text generated from his imagination and dreams. The exhibition will include early works by Lewty dating back to the 1970s, spanning almost 50 years, which will be displayed alongside work recently produced by the artist.

The exhibition will feature the fantastical artwork The Men Who Lie in the Road, as well as works on loan from London contemporary art gallery Art First and Lewty’s own private collection.

Lewty describes The Men Who Lie in the Road as a compendium of his work, as it represents all the ideas and images that re-emerge in much of his art. The piece depicts Old Milverton and explores Lewty’s fascination with the hamlet and the local landscape.

Lewty assembles and builds up his larger works from delicate drawings and text made on tissue paper. He describes his work as “automatic, spontaneous” and promotes drawing as a form of “primary visual thinking”, with “no planned final outcome”.

This unusual process results in his work being likened to medieval maps, with their layered, ‘palimpsest’ appearance.

Lewty’s work was last shown in Leamington in 1999 and this exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to revisit his engaging practice. Audiences will be able to discover or rediscover Lewty’s work as an artist who has made drawing and the mark of writing, as well as the art of creative, poetic writing, his life’s work.

Visit www.warwickdc.gov.uk/royalpumprooms for more information.