We are talking abstraction – its beginnings are in the Continent, the Motherland. Having this come back around, introducing what I do as an abstractionist and going back to Africa and [abstraction’s] roots, it’s perfect – Leonardo Drew
Goodman Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition on the African continent for American Abstractionist Leonardo Drew, presenting a major site-specific work as well as a new series of wall-based sculptures. The exhibition is organised in close collaboration with Galerie Lelong & Co.
Over the past three decades, Drew has honed a distinctive abstract language articulated through weathering raw materials (wood, scrap metal, cotton) to produce richly textured works that play on a tension between order and chaos. His surfaces approach a language of their own, embodying the laboured process of writing oneself into history. Drew’s practice builds on the lineage of abstraction, which was established and reworked by artists Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock and William T. Williams.
Artworks
Films
About
Leonardo Drew
Leonardo Drew (b. 1961, Tallahassee, Florida) is a New York-based artist who, over three decades, has become known for creating contemplative abstract sculptural works. Drew transforms accumulations of raw materials such as wood, scrap metal and cotton to create works that play upon a tension between order and chaos. His surfaces often approach a language of their own, embodying the laboured process of writing oneself into history.
Drew currently has solo exhibitions in the UK and the US with new site-specific installations at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, respectively. Solo museum exhibitions have been held at the Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University (2022); Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson (2020); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (2020); de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California (2017); Palazzo Delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy (2006); and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2000).
Drew’s mid-career survey, Existed, premiered at the Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston in 2009 and traveled to the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
Download full CV