Artist Talk: Leonardo Drew, "An Exploration of the World, Materials and Himself"

February 06, 2020

Artist Talk: Leonardo Drew, "An Exploration of the World, Materials and Himself"

Leonardo Drew: An Exploration of the World, Materials and Himself

By Anjeleah Thao

UC Davis Community Education Center.

On February 6, 2020, I attended the sixth annual Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebad Endowed Lecture in which sculpture Leonardo Drew was the visiting and focused artist of the evening. This free lecture was presented by the UC Davis Department of Art and Art History at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

Shining a light on his inspirations and journey as an Artist, Leonardo Drew started the talk with his origins from painting and drawing. He informed us that his origins of an artist from traditional media such as painting stopped when he was 19, shifting to a world of sculpture and the physical materials. Heavily emphasizing Jackson Pollock as one of his inspirations, we saw that this "action" of not just painting but breaking apart elements within an artwork was evident in Drew's works.

How does Sculptor Leonardo Drew explore the world and the materials?

If you just take a look closely, you'll notice that Drew transforms materials of decayed, rustic and even everyday objects. Through these transformations, he creates massive sculptures of accumulated materials inspired from his childhood in Connecticut, Chinese ceramics and Japanese paper making.

Drew purposely uses images of decaying, rustic and broken pieces to engrave a whole artwork as one, which highlights Drew's fascination with growth, life and rebirth. I was thoroughly intrigued by the energy of Drew and his courageous to break away from traditional art methods that he eventually felt too comfortable with. Constitently, Drew highly emphasized the world of being brave and stepping out of your comfort zone as an artist. "Nothing is permanent." he said in the lecture.