Over the course of his career, Lewis worked in a range of pictorial styles, including social realism, cubism, and abstract expressionism. Throughout, he retained an interest in imagery that expressed themes of civil rights activism. His mid-career works, characterized by colorful processions of geometric forms, frequently evoke the energy and dynamism of protests, marches, and parades.

Near the end of his career, Lewis embraced an alternate approach, tuning his imagery to a more cosmic scale. In this evocative canvas, white spirals swirl across an expansive blue field, recalling crashing waves, billowing clouds, or even celestial nebulae. The work is one of the last from his Seachange series—a group of paintings and works on paper that he created following a three-month trip to Greece in the summer of 1973, during which he created more than 200 sketches. Inspired in part by nighttime walks along the Greek coast, Seachange XIII suggests themes of regeneration, renewal, and, as the title suggests, the possibility of profound transformation.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)