NEW YORK—Leonardo Drew spent more than a month installing his latest show at Sikkema Jenkins. The Brooklyn-based artist has transformed the entire gallery into a meandering forest of charred wood. To navigate from the main space to the rear gallery, visitors must duck beneath the hovering structure.
The abstract installation serves as an unwieldy counterpoint to precise individual sculptural works that grace the walls. It is as though a tornado swept into the space and the debris was thrown in one direction while the other side of the gallery was blown clear. Drew has created a transporting environment that builds on his oeuvre, what the gallery describes as “emotionally charged reflections on the cyclical nature of existence.”
Born in Tallahassee, Fla., a precocious Drew first exhibited his work at 13 and since, in addition to an extensive list of museum and gallery exhibitions and residencies including the Studio Museum in Harlem, he has collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Drew’s fourth solo show at Sikkema Jenkins is on view from Sept. 6 to Oct. 13, 2012. The artist is also exhibiting “monstrosities created in paper pulp” at Pace Prints from Sept. 14 to Nov. 3, 2012.
All photos © Arts Observer
