Number 80 and other new work by Leonardo Drew
Created in collaboration with staff and interns of The Fabric Workshop and Museum during Drew's residency, Number 80 features the paper shells of several hundred found objects, carefully collected and hand cast over a two year period. Also on view are new sculptural works in paper Number 81 and Number 82. These pieces represent a new direction for Drew, who plans to exhibit all three sculptures in New York in 2002-03.

Drew's residency project at The Fabric Workshop and Museum is an interesting departure from his earlier work. For this large-scale sculptural project, Drew has collected objects from abandoned lots, forgotten attics, and local thrift shops with a discriminatory eye. Each object is unique and cast separately by staff and a crew of project interns. Objects such as discarded rocking horses, aged candlesticks and worn shoes are cast in paper so that they retain the shape and history of the absent object.

Although Number 80 is similar to Drew's past work in that it is based on discarded objects, Drew here creates ghost-like reproductions, rather than emphasizing deterioration, rust, and decay. Number 80's white paper casts offer subtle hints of their discarded objects' patina; this new work is a cleansing of and explosion from the dark grids that confined his past work. Leonardo Drew is known for the visually stimulating and thought provoking work he creates using sumptuous textures from materials such as paper, cotton, rope, wood, and detritus.

In past works such as Number 8 and Number 45, discarded objects are combined into grid patterns to form monolithic structures which are then given the appearance of decay with rust, black paint, and other substances. The lack of descriptive titles (all Drew's pieces are numbered) allows the viewer to draw from personal experience in reading the meaning of the work. The artist has commented that, "the works in themselves should act as mirrors." In the critical discourse of Drew's work, his use of materials has been interpreted as commentary on U.S. slavery and the position of African-Americans within the fabric of contemporary American society. Drew acknowledges these academic interpretations as well as each viewer's personal interpretation; he has said, "there's a historical experience, and there's a human experience," without suggesting that one is more important than the other.

Leonardo Drew was born in Tallahassee, Florida and grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and Parsons School of Design. His art is housed in prestigious international collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and ArtPace in San Antonio, Texas. He has received a number of awards in the past 12 years, including a residency at the Studio Museum of Harlem (1991) and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (1994).

A video documenting the process of Drew's residency will be on view in the Jorge Pardo video lounge during this exhibition.

For Press Information, contact P.R. Coordinator at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, 215.568.1111 or kathryn@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org

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