[3] The acclaimed New York Times art critic Roberta Smith called Lewis' paintings "skillfully spray-painted whose shifting tonalities and densities have a glowing, slightly psychedelic look suggesting an admiration for Jules Olitski, the California Light and Space movement and Las Vegas.
Early in his career he presented his work in installation-like formats hanging canvases with printed-images, then painting them onsite in the gallery.
Christopher Bollen, Editor-in-Chief of Interview Magazine, called this method of Lewis' "making art bleed.
"[5] "The artist allows the gash to “bleed” brightly colored paint (which he has applied), in order to express a transient and dying glamor.
"[7] Lewis' mix of abstraction and appropriated images[8] caught the attention of The Wall Street Journal who included Lewis in the article "The 23-Year Old Masters," along with artists Ryan Trecartin, Jordan Wolfson and Dash Snow[9] in a selection of ten top young US artists.