Renowned New York sculpture artists takes on Peckham

A New York-based artist renowned for his abstract works is coming to South London for his first solo show in the capital.

This summer, the South London Gallery (SLG) in Peckham Road will present a new site-specific sculpture by American artist Leonardo Drew.

Known for his monumental installations that express tension and turbulence, this will be Mr Drew’s first solo exhibition in a London institution.

Born in 1961 in Tallahassee, Florida, Mr Drew grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

He first exhibited his work at the age of thirteen, which brought his illustrations to the attention of executives at both DC and Marvel comics in the 1970s. 

By 1985, he graduated from Cooper Union College, New York, where he found inspiration and support from an older generation of African American artists working with Abstraction including Jack Whitten, Joe Overstreet, and Melvin Edwards.

At the SLG, Mr Drew will present a new sculpture which will cover the walls and floor of the exhibition space with fragments of wood recalling the formation of extreme weather events, natural disasters or, in the artist’s words, “acts of God”. 

The installation will take the form of the crest of a wave on each side of the gallery, towering over visitors who are invited to walk within the piece. 

Mr Drew often repurposes materials from his previous artwork to make new ones and refrains from attaching specific meaning to each sculpture, preferring to title pieces numerically so the viewer can engage independently.

His working process is meditative, involving repetitive labour to create the large-scale installations. 

He said: “My work and my life are not separate. They are the same thing.

“I don’t work with found objects because there is already a history embedded in that material.

“For me, I need to go through the rigors of touching it, living it, to become the weather.”

The SLG was founded in the 19th century by philanthropist William Rossiter to ‘bring art to the people of south London’. 

Today the gallery comprises its original site at 65 Peckham Road, the Fire Station, which opened to the public in 2018.

LEONARDO DREW: UBIQUITY II, will run from the SLG from May 30 until September 7.

Pictured top: LEONARDO DREW: UBIQUITY II will take over the South London Gallery this summer in the artists first London solo show (Picture: SLG)