Lewis Colburn

Lewis Colburn is an artist and educator based in Philadelphia, working primarily in sculpture and installation. His works blend digital and manual methods of making to create meticulous replicas of historical objects and artifacts. As a maker of sculpture, I am interested in the way we re-interpret and re-tell the past through the filter of our current experience. These re-tellings also manifest themselves as objects: the museum replica, the diorama, the stage set, or the laboriously hand-sewn and fussily detailed garments of a reenactor. Making my own meticulous replicas of historical objects generates its own little slippages and elisions, whether or not my objects can ‘pass’ as authentic. These slippages connect us to larger ideas about how we write and re-tell history, questioning the narratives we choose to emphasize and those we neglect.” Colburn’s work has been shown internationally and throughout the United States, at venues including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, Locust Projects in Miami, Florida, South China Normal University in Guangzhou, China, and the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan. Colburn has participated in numerous artist-in-residence programs including Franconia Sculpture Park, the Vermont Studio Center, SculptureSpace, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, R.A.I.R. in Philadelphia, and D’Clinic Studios in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. He holds a BA in studio art and Russian language from St. Olaf College, and an MFA in sculpture from Syracuse University. His works have been featured in Sculpture magazine, as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer. He teaches sculpture and three-dimensional design at Drexel University, where he is an associate professor.