Barnaby Lewis is a maker of curious, utilitarian furniture and metal-work sculpture. A master manipulator of metal, Lewis coaxes raw beauty and functionality from his base material to create fluid, twisting movements in silver and his distinctive, unpredictable and mollifying constructions.

A trained carpenter, Lewis has since been drawn to working with metal for its infinite recyclability and the latent possibility in its easy compliance. He heats, hammers, strengthens, angles, patches, welds, deconstructs, re-forms his pieces which become emblems of his winding discovery-like process.

Each piece begins with a simple, loose idea, and from there Lewis encourages accidents and malformations – embracing a sometimes chaotic, forgiving metalwork practice. He works often in single movements or gestures, pushing metal to the edge of its potential, transforming metals into smooth lines which move and sway in rhythmic ease. Lewis’ furniture pieces are undeniably art, though he holds onto their functionality as a way of evading the depth or grandeur that art can sometimes want to be: for Lewis, the meaning is the object – the chair is for one person sitting, the candlestick is for one candle burning. His more sculptural pieces, however, embrace art as art: visually assertive and structurally animated, Lewis’ sculpture combines a near-anarchic vitality and enchantment.

Lewis, who works from his self-made outdoor workshop in Bermondsey, leaves a raw, dinted, and honest finish to his work which pays tribute to the force and tools that were used to create it. His furniture and sculpture is an offering to his own future – the life of continuous creation, discovery, and motion that Lewis is forging for himself from his own unruly metal artistry.