Drew’s Shields series invokes the symbolism of protection and ancestral memory through the form of the shield—a recurring motif across African and diasporic visual traditions. These large, rounded or angular wall-based sculptures are constructed from oxidized and distressed materials, often encasing intricate patterns and textural accumulations within a seemingly defensive perimeter. With surfaces that appear both ceremonial and battle-worn, these works resonate with ideas of resilience, identity, and cultural inheritance, functioning as totems of both individual and collective endurance.
Leonardo Drew (b. 1961, USA) is known for his significant installations and sculptures which explore the tension between order and chaos. Number 353 and Number 368 demonstrate Drew’s approach to manipulating organic material to create richly detailed works which resemble densely populated cities, urban wastelands or organic forms and evoke the mutability of the natural world.
Leonardo Drew (b. 1961, USA) is known for his significant installations and sculptures which explore the tension between order and chaos. His work has been seen in major museums worldwide and is currently the subject of a major new commission at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK.
Number 366 and Number 367 demonstrate Drew’s approach to manipulating organic material to create richly detailed works which resemble densely populated cities, urban wastelands or organic forms and evoke the mutability of the natural world. Both works were shown in the artist’s first solo exhibition on the continent at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg earlier this year.
Leonardo Drew is a New York-based artist and his work is held 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.
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. 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); and de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California (2017). 2023 saw Drew produce new site-specific installations at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
In a series of segmented works, Leonardo Drew arranges his materials into grid-like compositions that often resemble a checkerboard. Each section operates as a distinct zone, showcasing the full range of his material vocabulary—charred wood, rusted metal, cotton, paper pulp, and glass elements—while maintaining a rhythmic overall structure. These compartmentalized surfaces create a sense of order within the visual density, allowing for contrast and variation across each square. The format serves as both containment and catalyst, emphasizing material difference while reinforcing the interconnectedness of destruction, decay, and renewal.
Leonardo Drew (b. 1961, USA) is known for his significant installations and sculptures which explore the tension between order and chaos. Number 353 and Number 368 demonstrate Drew’s approach to manipulating organic material to create richly detailed works which resemble densely populated cities, urban wastelands or organic forms and evoke the mutability of the natural world.