Music and art have been part of Lew Aytes’ life since his earliest memories. Born in Southern California in 1949, Lew began his musical training at age 8, and has performed in school and community ensembles, bands and orchestras throughout his life. This lifelong connection to music eventually led him to sculpture, where he discovered that sound, movement, and form are shaped by similar creative processes, desires, and emotions. As with music, his pursuit of sculpture is rooted in creating work that is felt, not merely observed.

​

Lew earned a BA in music from California State University, Sacramento, and an MBA from California School of Professional Studies. He also completed a post-baccalaureate track in sculpture at California State University, Monterey Bay, and has continued to develop his practice through study with various mentors and masters. His figurative, multimedia work brings distinctive sculptural styles together.

​

Working collaboratively with historians, curators, writers, and other artists, Lew has created exhibits that place his sculptures alongside historical documentation, personal objects, and complementary artwork, bringing the people and their stories into focus. His exhibition work has explored subjects ranging from the connections between John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Woody Guthrie’s music and the experiences of Dust Bowl migrants, to the stories of forced displacement, incarceration and cultural resilience of Oklahoma Indigenous leaders in the 1870s.

​

Lew’s work has been exhibited at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California; the Irish Cultural Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Ataloa Museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma; and La Loggia Gallery in Assisi, Italy. He was also a Missouri Art Council featured artist in May 2023.

 

​