ICA Miami awards the third Ezratti Family Prize for Sculpture to Tau Lewis, whose sewn and quilted sculptures create subversive monuments that pay tribute to the mythologies and materials of diasporic communities. Employing a variety of techniques including hand-sewing, applique, carving, and assemblage, and often working with found fabrics, Lewis salvages disparate materials and transforms them into signature forms.
The artist’s new site-responsive installation at ICA Miami evokes a mythic world of her own creation. Imbuing her characters with autonomous identities and lives, Lewis works iteratively, continuing to revisit previous characters and themes. A larger-than-life seated figure—the newest exploration of Lewis’s Saint Mozelle, a tutelary deity—surrounded by sewn vines and flowers forms the center of the installation. The materials, including repurposed suede, leather, fabric, and found objects, have lives and material identities that exist beyond the exhibited work—much like the character itself.
Tau Lewis (b. 1993, Toronto) has had recent solo exhibitions at 52 Walker, New York, (2022); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2021); and Oakville Galleries, Canada (2020). Her work has been prominently featured in prestigious exhibitions including “The Milk of Dreams,” Venice Biennale (2022). Lewis’s work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library Collection, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; among many others. Lewis lives and works in Brooklyn.
Inaugurated in 2019, the Ezratti Family Prize for Sculpture is awarded by ICA Miami to a living artist in recognition of their exceptional contributions in the area of sculpture and supports the creation of a new commission. Building on the museum’s history of commissioning and presenting new works, the prize reflects ICA Miami’s ongoing commitment to promoting experimentation in artistic practice and providing an international platform for influential voices in contemporary art. Previous recipients for the Ezratti Prize for Sculpture are Damián Ortega and Robert Grosvenor.
The exhibition is organized by ICA Miami and curated by Stephanie Seidel, Curator.
Support
This exhibition is made possible through the support of the Ezratti Family Prize for Sculpture.
Exhibitions at ICA Miami are supported by the Knight Foundation.
