Lewis Ihnatko (b.1995, Sydney) lives and works in Sydney New South Wales. Ihnatko obtained a BFA from the National Art School, Sydney in 2018. Since graduating, Ihnatko has been a finalist//winner of a number of art prizes including the Troy Quinliven Memorial Prize.
Lewis Ihnatko’s paintings carry a very present but open ended narrative. The works elicit muddied and mixed emotions. The subjects are at times intensley funny but also harrowing. The paintings, through their curios charm, draw you in and invite introspection and empathy for the characters. Ihnattko depict scenes of intimacy and vulnerability through the subject matter and the painterly gesture. Ihnatko’s ideosyncratic depiction of the human subjects and the fantasy-like spaces they exist in, intentionaly obscure the unexpresse concept of the works. These tense psychodramatic paintings are ultimatley influnced by the artist’s abstract fears, anxieties and the beauty Ihnatko sees in the world.