Anissa R. Lewis

After receiving her MFA from Yale University School of Art in Painting and Printmaking, Anissa R. Lewis moved to Philadelphia, PA where her deep belief in community, identity, agency, justice and voice led her to many projects and collaborations. Some of these include: an arts-based women empowerment classes for a Philadelphia County prison drug and alcohol abuse unit; a rites of passage program for black and brown teenage girls; and, student-driven mural projects aimed to address civic engagement, neighborhood relationships and identity.

 

Lewis returned to her hometown neighborhood, Covington, KY to focus her work on the power of place, storytelling and community through murals, prints, community-informed projects and collaborations/workshops/talks and video. She has taught classes in social practice and print at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning and the Art Academy of Cincinnati. She has appeared on the podcast, “I LIKE YOUR WORK,” Upcoming Spring 2027, her work will appear in belonging to place: The Creative Community and Artistic Legacy of bell hooks, written by authors Dr. Gale Greenlee and Shauna Caldwell, and printed by University Press of Kentucky.  Lewis’ work has shown nationally at the Hampton University Museum, the Contemporary Arts Center, in Cincinnati, OH, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kansas African American Museum and MOCA-Connecticut.  Her work is in the Sara Vance Waddell Collection. 

 

She lives in her childhood home, in Covington, KY, with her partner and son who wants a pet turtle.