Ocula Conversation Jess Johnson: Worlds Within Worlds Geometric patterns, anthropomorphic characters, architectural spatial environments, and relics of the ancient world appear throughout Jess Johnson's artworks.Johnson's solo art-ventures began in drawing, but her long-term collaborative relationship with animator Simon Ward brings her drawings to life in videos and virtual reality. The animator has...
Ocula Conversation Melati Suryodarmo: Performance Art as Trigger In 2012, Melati Suryodarmo opened Studio Plesungan in her native Surakarta, also known as Solo, the historic royal capital of the Mataram Empire of Java in Indonesia. Suryodarmo had returned to Indonesia from Germany, where she studied Butoh and choreography with Butoh dancer and choreographer Anzu Furukawa, time-based media with avantgarde...
Ocula Report Lagos Biennial 2019: Stories from Africa’s most Populous City 15 Nov 2019 : Jareh Das for Ocula Under the direction of Folakunle Oshun, the second edition of the Lagos Biennial (26 October–23 November 2019) includes works by over 40 Lagos-based and international artists, architects, and collectives. Curated by architect Tosin Oshinowo, curator and producer Oyindamola Fakeye, and assistant curator of photography at the Art Institute of...
Ocula Insight | Video Hans Hartung and Art Informel at Mazzoleni London (1 October 2019-18 January 2020) presents key works by the French-German painter while highlighting his connection with artists active in Paris during the 50s and 60s. In this video, writer and historian Alan Montgomery discusses Hartung's practice and its legacy.Born in Leipzig in 1904, Hans...
Leonardo Drew was born in 1961 in Tallahassee, Florida, and he grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Drew seemed bound to work as a professional artist from a young age; his works were exhibited publically for the first time when he was only 13 years old. By the age of 15 he was being courted by both DC and Marvel Comics to work as an illustrator. However, Drew would apply his talents to a very different artistic path. He became inspired by abstract works, especially those of Jackson Pollock and Piet Mondrian. Drew went on to attend the Parsons School of Design in New York, and he earned a BFA from Cooper Union in 1985.
Drew’s works are always sculptural, although he tends to avoid making freestanding pieces. Instead, he will often mount objects onto panels or directly to the wall, which can be seen as a nod to his beginnings as a painter and draftsman. His seminal work “Number 8” features rope, animal hide, raccoon skull, and even a dead bird that all hang together, all painted black, creating a deep, dark, and brooding sculptural take on Pollock’s all-over drip painting.
Rooted in historical evidence, Leonardo Drew’s abstract sculptural compositions are emotionally charged reflections on the cyclical nature of existence—from the eroded fibres of human industry and the urban tide of development to the awareness of ourselves as part of the fabric of a larger universe and a connection to all things. The work reflects the universality of existence and the interconnectivity of all beings to one another. It illustrates these relationships through a combination of the visceral qualities of the materials with the abstract sculptural forms the pieces make up. These cosmological frameworks are meant to mirror the organic reality of existence and reveal the resonance of life and humanity.
Ocula Insight Leonardo Drew at Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong By Katie Fallen In 1988, Leonardo Drew arguably found his artistic voice with his seminal work Number 8. Using rope, animal hide, raccoon skull and a dead bird, Number 8 is a black mass of detritus, which hangs from the wall like a curtain of darkness. With this work in mind, and the thoughts of destruction and decay it engenders, I approached Drew’s...
Related Press LEONARDO DREW with Charles Schultz The Brooklyn Rail : 2 July 2019 Leonardo Drew (b. 1961) considers himself an elder statesman of the art world. In his first exhibition, at age 13, he showed a larger than life painting of Captain America. His natural talent for draftsmanship earned him early opportunities to work at prestigious comic book publishers like Marvel and DC Comics, but Drew was after something more...
Related Press Leonardo Drew and the mother Interview Magazine : 11 October 2016 'As you're going through, just stay loose, and digest,' Leonardo Drew tells visitors who approach him at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., where his work is currently on display. Last week during our conversation at the gallery, groups flocked to the artist, seeking elucidations. Drew was kind—always with a smile on his face, usually...
Related Press 'Structures of Recollection: Contemporary Approaches to Materials and Memory' at Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong ArtAsiaPacific : 23 April 2016 Exploring the idea of memory recollection, Paul Moorhouse, curator of 20th-century art at London’s National Portrait Gallery, drew together six international artists for Structures of Recollection: Contemporary Approaches to Materials and Memory, currently showing at Pearl Lam Galleries in Hong Kong.Moorhouse’s curatorial...
Related Press Leonardo Drew’s first solo exhibition in Asia at Pearl Lam Galleries Art Radar Journal : 24 November 2015 African-American contemporary sculptor Leonardo Drew’s first solo exhibition in Asia features 13 new works, including two on paper and one mixed media, and runs until 31 December 2015 at Pearl Lam Galleries Hong Kong.The exhibition reveals the connections tying Leonardo Drew to the suburban developments adjacent to the metropolis of New...
Related Video & Audio Viewpoints | Episode 3 | Leonardo Drew, Larry Ossei-Mensah Galerie Lelong & Co. : 3 October 2019 'In this episode of the Viewpoints podcast, we'll hear from artist Leonardo Drew and curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, two link-minded voices in contemporary art,' says Mary Sabbatino, Vice President/Partner at Galerie Lelong & Co. 'Drew is a Brooklyn-based sculptor known for transforming and assembling varied material in an attempt, as he says, to...
