Meet Amani

The Flow Artist Residency program is a creative residency at Flow Brickell supporting artists creating work that brings people together through space, story, and shared experience.

Adding light to the intersection of creativity, community, and care

Across the board, there’s one commonality you’ll find in Amani Lewis’ work: people. The Flow Artist in Residence has a talent for capturing the essence of a person on a canvas — from their energy to what they stand for. That love and passion for other humans can be traced back to Amani’s Baltimore roots. Roots that have naturally grown toward Miami as an extension of the value they place on community. Because where there’s community, there are people, and where there are people, there’s art. The perfect recipe for creation, in Amani’s eyes. Plus glitter — always glitter. More to that story below.

Where can we find your work?

Amani Lewis: My work lives primarily online through my website and Instagram, where I share new paintings, installations, and works in progress.

I also exhibit in galleries and public art spaces when opportunities arise. The studio is where most of the magic happens, but the digital space has become a powerful extension of that practice — allowing people from all over the world to engage with the work.

Favorite human you’ve painted or been inspired by?

AL: It’s hard to choose just one because so much of my work is about everyday people and the quiet power they hold. I’m deeply inspired by the communities around me — friends, family, strangers in public spaces. Those moments of ordinary life often carry the most profound stories. But if I’m being honest. I have a muse I like to work with who inspires new techniques and modes of working, and that would be my partner, Ariana.

If you had to choose just one, what would be your medium of choice?

AL: Painting with glitter will always be home for me. Even though my work expands into photography, collage, and installation, painting is the language that allows me to slow down and really sit with a person, a memory, or a moment. It holds history in a way that feels both intimate and monumental.

Tell us about the glitter — what led you to start working with it?

AL: The glitter entered my work through a realization about light. I’ve always been interested in how a painting can hold presence beyond just image and color. I remember hearing Brice Marden speak about how the only way to truly arrive at color is through light, and that idea stayed with me. Glitter does both — it captures light and transforms it.

When light hits the surface of the painting, the work shifts and moves, allowing the figure to transcend flat form. For me, it became a natural way to express someone’s essence and spirit. The material allows the subject to exist in a space where light, color, and presence are constantly alive.

How does art have the power to unite people?

AL: Art creates a shared space for reflection and conversation. It can hold complex emotions, histories, and identities in a way that invites people to slow down and look together. Even when people come from different backgrounds, they can meet inside a work of art and recognize something themselves in the work. That moment of recognition is where connection begins, and conversation flows.