On Friday, September 5, 2008, Midtown Artery opened Anita Lewis' latest exhibit entitled "E2 - Earth Elements". The crowd was huge, the wine was flowing and everyone had a great time.

One critic wrote:

"Wow! What a First Friday in Greenville it was last night. The streets were full and the galleries were open!

Move over Lee Krasner and Joan Mitchell, there is a new artist in town. Opening last night at the Midtown Artery at 718-A South Main Street, Anita Lewis came to town by way of Southern Germany and Oceanside, California, not just as an outstanding female artist, but as a master of Abstract Expressionism who happens to be female.

The center piece of the show was a masterful triptych whose use of grays and cloudy whites was reminiscent of the later Whistler seascapes, but with a much different message. This artist leads the viewer visually from one panel, to the next, to the third with a suggestion of hope and serenity. This work could have easily been called "The Day After Creation" because its serenity and continuity at once rests the eye and calms the spirit. One is reluctant to move away and wants to cling on for just another moment. (I had to go back several times). There is something there that makes one pause and think of the possibilities of the future of mankind.

Intelligent and engaging, Ms. Lewis is at once charming and knowledgeable. She exudes a sort of California style of eternal youth and energy which is beautifully expressed in her work. Her brush strokes are strong and true. There is a freedom to her work but an underlying structure prevents chaos and, pulling the pieces together, has something to say. My favorite example of this is her "Siberian Forest" which is exceedingly strong and powerful. Like Joan Mitchell's "Blue Tree" and "My Landscape II" (1967), the structure is there but this is no traditional, representational landscape. The work says much more about how the artist feels about what she saw on her recent trip to Russia than what the forest really looks like to the untrained eye. The bravura of her strokes are so powerful that one need not book a flight to Siberia to know a great deal about how that forest impresses. Here is a painting so powerful and evocative that the viewer is not embarrassed to linger on and stare. Like Joan Mitchell, Ms. Lewis lived in Europe for twenty years and the classic art history of that world is evident in her body of work presented at the Midtown Artery last night.

As a side note, the owners, Laurie and Charlie Thompson were wonderful, friendly hosts. I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in art and a fresh look at the Abstract Expressionism movement in America stop by and take a look."

Cliff Johns, CAPT USN RET Pickens, SC

Midtown Artery adds Taylor Anne Smith and Niki Sands