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Goodman Gallery welcomes Leonardo Drew

Johannesburg, Cape Town, London – Goodman Gallery is pleased to announce the representation of New York-based artist Leonardo Drew in collaboration with Galerie Lelong & Co.

This month, Drew will exhibit his latest body of work at Goodman Gallery HQ in Johannesburg, marking the artist’s first solo exhibition on the African continent.

Leonardo Drew
27 May – 1 July 2023
Goodman Gallery Johannesburg

“Leonardo Drew is one of the most significant sculptors of his generation. While his work powerfully recalls post-Minimalist sculpture in the US context, Drew’s dynamic studio practice also pays homage to Abstraction’s deep roots in Africa. After programming Drew in London and facilitating a major site-specific sculptural installation at Art Basel Limited last year, it is a great privilege to finally host his first solo presentation on the African continent” – Liza Essers, Goodman Gallery Owner & Director

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 travelled to the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

In 2019, Drew was commissioned for a new outdoor project for Madison Square Park, marking the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s 38th public commission and the artist’s first major public art project. The installation, titled City in the Grass, has since travelled to the North Carolina Museum of Art, Mississippi Museum of Art and The Wadsworth Atheneum.

Drew’s works are included in public collections around the world, including Tate, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD.

Leonardo Drew is represented by Galerie Lelong & Co., Anthony Meier Gallery and Goodman Gallery.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH LEONARDO TALKING ABOUT HIS WORK