12 Facts About Leonardo Drew

Leonardo Drew is a contemporary artist based in Brooklyn, New York.

Leonardo Drew creates sculptures from natural materials and through processes of oxidation, burning, and decay, Drew transforms these objects into massive sculptures that critique social injustices and the cyclical nature of existence.

Leonardo Drew was born in Tallahassee, Florida, but was raised in the projects of Bridgeport, Connecticut, where the city dump occupied every view of his apartment.

Leonardo Drew began his artistic career at a very young age, exhibiting his work publicly for the first time at the age of 13.

Leonardo Drew then went on to attend Parsons School of Design in New York, and received his BFA from Cooper Union in 1985.

Leonardo Drew's works are part of several major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Tate, United Kingdom; The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, NY; Saint Louis Museum, Saint Louis, MO; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; and Perez Art Museum Miami in Miami, FL.

Leonardo Drew has collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, on a production entitled 'Ground Level Overlay,' and has participated in several artist residencies including those at Artpace, San Antonio and The Studio Museum of Harlem in New York City, among others.

In 1988, Leonardo Drew found his artistic voice when creating his seminal work Number 8, which he believes began everything that followed.

In 1992, Leonardo Drew had his first major solo exhibition at the Thread Waxing Space in New York, which included a published catalogue with an essay written by writer and critic Hilton Als.

Later on that year, Leonardo Drew was invited to display work in the Senegal biennial.

Leonardo Drew's work is reminiscent of Post Minimalist sculpture that alludes to America's industrial past.

The mid-career survey exhibition, Existed: Leonardo Drew, was inaugurated in 2009 at the Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston and later traveled to the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA.