“There are so many layers to his work, from the stunning use of colour to the subtle codes he leaves in his paintings, arming you with the keys to unlock them, and finally the humour embedded in all of them. Hewitt is a magician with a paintbrush, the Brightonian king of artistic misdirection.” - Art In Brighton

Sam Hewitt paints people in cities and the thing about people in cities is that they have developed ways of coping with living so close to each other. Those coping strategies are known to all of us but we rarely think about them. Hewitt’s paintings are in themselves coping strategies to deal with the overwhelm of input. Paintings of frozen moments in a crowd in which the subtle exchanges of information between people can be examined. He then projects his own assumptions onto these exchanges and titles the works accordingly. This nudges them into representations of his internal workings as well as those of the urban populace. Almost as if there is no distinction.

Sam has recently been announced as one of the runners up in the International Art Competition - Painting of the Year 2020. This is what the judges wrote:

'Social Distancing' from Sam Hewitt (UK) A very graphic work with a surprising tonality and moody use of color. The painting has a lot of rhythm and has a nice tension between the three dimensionally painted parts and the graphic two-dimensional stencil effects. The layering here and there betrays the underlying (and inverted) painting that not only cooperates functionally in the new painting, but also lifts it to a higher level, because it creates extra tension in the work. There is a great technical mastery of material and technique in this work that once again illustrates that it pays off when you first have a classically trained basis and then start "playing" and experimenting with your skills.

EDUCATION

• Visual and Performing Arts at Brighton University

solo exhibitions include

• 2019 Infraculture, Dynamite Gallery, Brighton

• 2018 Inward Sky, Dynamite Gallery, Brighton

• 2017 Hintergedanke, Dynamite Gallery, Brighton

• 2016 Kali Yuga, Dynamite Gallery, Brighton

mixed exhibitions include Collections

• 2016,17,18,19 Art Fairs in Uk, Hong Kong, Singapore and New York

• 2017 Shadows and Light, Byard Gallery, Cambridge

• 2015 Down Your Street, Byard Gallery, Cambridge

• 2019 Contributing Artist and Mentor on the Systems Change HIVE Project “Hidden Pathways” Onca Gallery Brighton and touring the UK in 2020/21

• 2020 - present, Cameron Contemporary Art, Hove

  Collections

• 3 Works in the Hiscox Collection