Part of the New Light Prize Exhibition 2020

Jane Lewis graduated from the Slade School of Art in 1977, where she later taught. She lectured at other London colleges until in 1986, after a 12-month residency with Kent Opera and acquiring a gallerist/agent, she was able to pursue an independent studio practice. Since then she has received awards and commissions from the Henry Moore Foundation, Standard Chartered Bank, the Oppenheim-John Downes Trust and Arts Council England. Her paintings and graphic works are in public collections and numerous private collections, and interviews with the artist have been published in a number of online blogs. She has exhibited widely in the UK and also in Europe and the USA, and now shows regularly with the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in Austria.

In recent years much of Jane’s work has been to do with animal rights. The Sacrificial Machine is a surreal depiction of a hen and her chicks as a cruel machine which doubles as a child’s toy. Images of animals are frequently idealized or made cartoon-like in packaging and advertising by the animal agriculture industry and toys are given away with the food products made from them.