Tau Lewis (b.1993) was born in Toronto, Canada and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Lewis presented a newly commissioned installation as part of Yorkshire Sculpture International at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2019, the artist’s first exhibition in Europe. Lewis’ self-taught practice explores historical traumas, black identity, agency, memory and its recovery. Her work is constructed through a combination of hand sewing and assemblage of found objects to create portraits, which take on both human and organic forms.
Lewis has presented work at The 59th Venice Biennale and at 52 Walker, New York. She has exhibited in several museums and institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, MoMA PS1, New York, New Museum, New York and The Hepworth Wakefield.
In 2025, The Hepworth Wakefield acquired Lewis’ sculpture, Lilith (2024).
Lilith continues an ongoing sculptural bust series in which the artist uses found materials to depict imagined beings that act as spiritual conduits between the past, present, and future. Lewis’s intricate craft transforms repurposed materials – such as leather, shearling and beads – into speculative idols and monuments, building a unique iconography informed by the Black diasporic experience and addressing the erasure of forgotten histories.
Lilith has been acquired through an innovative funding partnership between the Contemporary Art Society, the Henry Moore Foundation and Cathy Wills. The sculpture is on display at the gallery from 21 March 2026 as part of a new exhibition, Rhythm, Dance and Everything.
