33 Temple: Leonardo Drew at Pearl Lam Gallery, Hong Kong.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Leonardo Drew at Pearl Lam Gallery, Hong Kong.

As I entered the Pedder Building in Central on my way to visit the exhibition 1,000 islands at the Simon Lee gallery I saw a sign advertising another gallery opening, this time upstairs at the Pearl Lam Gallery. The exhibition was the first display of work by Leonardo Drew in Asia and was a wonderful surprise for me.
For the last few months I had been enjoying videos of his work on Youtube.com and poring over images on internet search engines, thoroughly enjoying Leonardo's work. So, completely out of the blue I was able to see them up close and finally appreciate what it is that he does.

Apparently inspired by a city dump that surrounded his childhood home, Leonardo Drew carefully and systematically constructs chaos from material that he 'ages' and 'distresses' in order to instil his works with an atmosphere of haphazard juxtaposition that overlies careful and considered logic.

As a sculptor myself I could sense the enjoyment that he takes in the transformational process that creates the work. From the way that one component section leads onto the next (citing Mondrian as a reference), or how one material leads us into the neighbouring material, it's possible to follow his train of thought and the way the work has lead the creator in it's urge to be born. The works are organic in form and it is as if the works have grown naturally, with Leonardo providing the help and assistance that the work demanded.

A wonderful exhibition.