This artist talk is presented through Contemporary Art Forum (ART 281) a lecture-based course that focuses on the discussion of contemporary visual art and design issues and their relationship to fundamental visual art practices. The lecture coincides with the addition of a new sculpture by Leonardo Drew to Miami University’s Oxford Campus made possible by a gift from Tom Smith (‘50). A reception at the Art Museum follows the artist talk.

For over three decades, Leonardo Drew has become known for creating contemplative abstract sculptural works that play upon a tension between order and chaos. At once monumental and intimate in scale, his work recalls post-Minimalist sculpture that alludes to America’s industrial past. Drew transforms accumulations of raw materials such as wood, scrap metal, and cotton to articulate various overlapping themes with emotional gravitas: from the cyclical nature of life and decay to the erosion of time. His surfaces often approach a language of their own, embodying the labored process of writing oneself into history.

Drew’s works have been shown internationally and are included in numerous public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and Tate, London. His works have recently been acquired by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Bloomington, Indiana; and New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana among others.

Leonardo Drew in his studio, 2021

Photo: Christopher Garcia Valle, courtesy of Anthony Meier Fine Arts and Galerie Lelong & Co.