Press Release
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Press Release VIGO 22 Old Bond Street London W1S 4PY 0207 491 1485 [email protected] www.vigogallery.com LEONARDO DREW 12 October – 11 November 2011 Private view: Tuesday 11th October 2011 VIGO, the latest contemporary gallery to open in Old Bond Street is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of wall based tree sculptures by American artist Leonardo Drew, on view from 12th October – 11th November 2011. Drew is known for sculptural installations most often based on exploration of a grid or framework, which incorporate created, manipulated and found materials constructed from fabricated wood, tree branches, roots, paper, raw cotton, rust, found objects and mud. He re- examines and re- invents these objects and materials, which are often loaded with multiple afro- American historical, cultural and social connotations. They engage with the cyclical and transient nature of life and the passing of time, yet ultimately rely on his formal abstract compositional ability, working on a purely aesthetic level. Drew tends to offer no prescriptive explanations, seeing the works as mirrors, and individuals’ interpretation as part of the contract. In his latest work, Drew presents wall sculptures composed of painted, machine- cut wood and natural tree roots, which suggest man and nature in both harmony and opposition, battling against and coming together in repetitive but variant structure. Drew’s last show in New York introduced these urban tree works on a grand scale with the majority of the sculptures entering US museum collections. The constructions in the current exhibition have an intensity often found in the large- scale museum works when viewed from afar. They repeat and pulsate, integrating the man- made and natural worlds as they occur in the context of the city. Drew’s work is to be found in major museum collections around the world including MOMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim and the St Louis Art Museum. Private collections include the Rubell, Hort and Frankel Collections as well as the Linda Pace Foundation. For further information please contact Toby Clarke, [email protected] Listings information VIGO, 22 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4PY +44 (0) 20 7491 1485 [email protected] www.vigogallery.com Gallery hours: 10am - 6pm, Monday – Friday Further Information: Recent Museum acquisitions: During Drew’s most recent commercial show works were purchased by: • MOMA (New York, USA) • Miami Art Museum (USA) • The Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa, USA) • The Blanton Museum (Austin, Texas, USA) • Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, USA) S elected Solo Museum shows: • 1994 Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art, New York, USA • 1994 Thread Waxing Space, New York, USA • 1994 Walter and McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, SF, USA • 1995 Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA • 1995 Artpace, San Antonio, USA • 1996 Buffalo Art Gallery, New York, USA • 1996 Saint Louis Art Museum, USA • 1999 Madison Art Center, Wisconsin, USA • 1999 The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA • 2000 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA • 2001 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland • 2002 The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Phillidelphia, USA • 2006 Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contempranea, Sienna, Italy • 2009 The Blaffer Museum, Houston USA • 2010 The Weathespoon Art Museum, The Centre for Contemporary Art, USA, 2010 • 2010 Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, USA Selected Group Museum Shows/ Biennales: • 1991 The Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, USA (Artists in Residence) • 1992 Dakar Biennale, Senegal • 1992 Thread Waxing Space, New York, USA (Lisa Hoke, Brad Kahlhamer, Leonardo Drew) • 1993 Montclair Museum, Montclair, USA (25 Years of Afro – American Art) • 1994 The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut, USA (Promising Suspects) • 1995 The Art Institute of Chicago. USA (About Place, Recent Art of the Americas) • 1995 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (Carnegie International) • 1997 Miami Art Museum, USA (New Work) • 1997 Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (American Stories). Travelling show. • 1997 Chiba City Museum of Art, Japan • 1997 Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Japan • 1997 Kurashiki City Museum of Art, Japan • 1997 Akita Prefectural Cultural Hall, Japan • 1998 Samuel P Harn Museum of Art, Gainsville, USA (Inner Eye - Contemporary Art from the Marc and Livia Straus Collection). Travelling show. • 1998 Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, USA • 1998 Chrysler Museum of Art, Virginia, USA • 1998 Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, USA • 1999 The Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, USA (Passages: Contemporary Art in Transition) Travelling show. • 2000 Chicago Cultural Center, USA • 2000 Miami Art Museum, USA • 2000 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. (Vanitas: Meditations on Life and Death in Contemporary Art) • 2001 Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Florida, USA (Brooklyn!) • 2004 Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA (Open House: Working in Brooklyn) • 2004 Saint Louis Art Museum, USA (Assemblage) • 2006 New York Historical Society, USA (Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery) • 2006 Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland. (Black Alphabet: ConTEXTS of contemporary African American Art) • 2007: Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, USA (Lost and Found: Materials, Myths and Memories.) • 2007: Columbus Museum, Georgia (New Directions in American Drawing) Travelling exhibition • 2007: Telfair Museum of Art, Georgia, USA • 2007: Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, USA • 2007: Allen Memorial Museum, Oberlin, USA (Repeat Performances; Seriality and Systems in Art since 1960. • 2010: Rubell Collection (30 Americans) Travelling show. • 2011: North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, USA • 2011: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA • 2011: Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, USA Residencies: • 1989 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine. USA • 1990 Vermont Studio Center, USA • 1990- 91 The Studio Museum, Harlem, New York. USA • 1997 The Asian Cultural Council, Tokyo. Japan: 4 month Residency • 2002 The Fabric Workshop and Museum: 2 year Residency • ArtPace, San Antonio. Selected Commercial Gallery Solo shows: • 1994 Leonardo Drew: Barbara Toll Fine Arts, New York, USA • 2001 Leonardo Drew: Mary Boone Gallery, New York, USA • 2004 Leonardo Drew: Finesilver Gallery, Houston, USA • 2006 Leonardo Drew: Mary Boone Gallery, New York, USA • 2007 Leonardo Drew: Finesilver Gallery, Houston, USA • 2007 Leonardo Drew: Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, USA • 2010 Leonardo Drew: The Fine Art Society, London, UK • 2010 Leonardo Drew: Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, US VIGO Is a new contemporary gallery formed in September 2011 by Toby Clarke and Thomas Williams. The gallery plans an ambitious series of exhibitions with international emerging and established artists including Neal Tait, Jason Martin, Marcus Harvey, Zak Ove, Oliver Marsden, and Henry Krokatsis. Next year it will showcase two exhibitions on behalf of Marcus Harvey and Peter Jones’ TURPS BANANA magazine, and a two- part show of the California artsts from the 1960s and 70s, including Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Diebenkorn, David Park and others. Toby Clarke was previously Director of Contemporary art at The Fine Art Society. He is the curator of the forthcoming museum show London 12 in the Prague City Gallery next May and curates the Quo Vadis Collection. Toby advises AMOYA (Museum of Young Art in Prague) and several residencies including the Eileen Shona Residency and the Horiuchi Residency. He also works on building collections with a small number of individual collectors within specific parameters. Charity work includes the We are Not Witches Show at the Saatchi Gallery and various committee advisory roles. Thomas Williams has been championing British and international contemporary figurative artists since 1999. In 2011 he held solo exhibitions by Lars Elling, and YBA, Alessandro Raho, whose monograph is to be published through Lund Humphries this autumn. In 2012 he will curate two ground- breaking exhibitions of Californian artists from the 1960 and 70s. Williams recently co- founded the British Museum’s ‘Vollard’ group to support the acquisition of contemporary works on paper . In 2010 he began a major renovation and expansion of the gallery space at 22 Old Bond Street, completed in March 2011. .