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Exhibition: 'Existed: Leonardo Drew'

Presented by Weatherspoon Art Museum at Weatherspoon Art Museum

February 7-May 9, 2010

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This major solo exhibition of work by Leonardo Drew opened to rave reviews in Houston in Summer 2009. The Weatherspoon Art Museum is proud to be the exclusive presenting museum of “Existed: Leonardo Drew” in the Southeast. The exhibition includes 14 major works realized between 1991 and 2006, including the installation, “Number 123” (2006), which is specially adapted by the artist for the Weatherspoon’s Atrium gallery, along with eight works on paper made between 2005 and 2008. Throughout his career, Drew has been continuously engaged with the cyclical nature of existence. Made to resemble the detritus of everyday life, his formally abstract but emotionally charged compositions have an aesthetic authority and metaphorical weight that is as unique as it is symbolic. Often interpreted as a comment on the position of African-Americans in contemporary American society, his work transcends any specific historic and ethnic reference, and has a unique aesthetic authority that is deeply embedded in the theory and practice of mid-twentieth-century abstraction. Ranging from the intense drama of his sculptures and installations of the 1980s, to the epic sweep of his massive wall-bound tableaux in the 1990s, to the ethereal language of his paper casts of the early 2000s, his works transcend time and place in favor of a celebration of things eternal. The monograph published in conjunction with the exhibition is the first publication to fully document and interpret Drew’s career and his place within the broader context of contemporary art. At 208 pages, with more than 110-four color illustration plates, the publication includes essays by exhibition curator Claudia Schmuckli and Allen S. Weiss, Associate Adjunct Professor, Performance Studies and Cinema, New York University; an interview with the artist; an annotated chronology; and a selected biography and bibliography. The catalogue retails for $59.95 and is available in the Museum Shop. ”Existed: Leonardo Drew” is organized by Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston. Major funding has been provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation, the Harpo Foundation, the Linda Pace Foundation, The Fifth Floor Foundation, and Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Educational and public programs related to the exhibition at the Weatherspoon are made possible through a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council.