Hillside Auditorium Artist to Give Guest Lecture

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Students installing Leonardo Drew’s "Number 23S" in Hillside Auditorium.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Guest artist Leonardo Drew will give a lecture at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center.

Drew is known for his dynamic large-scale sculptural installations that are often composed of everyday objects, both organic and inorganic. His work uses abstraction and juxtaposition to meticulously assemble and manipulate materials ranging from wood, fabric, paper, cotton and rope to metal, rust and everyday trash in a way that creates order and a new existence for used objects.

Drew’s Number 23S (2012), a 64-square-foot, three-dimensional work composed of wood and mixed media, is on display in the university’s newly-finished Hillside Auditorium, which opened for classes in January. The piece is on loan to the university until May 2014.

A resident of San Antonio, Tex. and New York City, Drew has been making art since childhood and first exhibited his work at the age of 13. He attended the Parsons School of Design and received a bachelor of fine arts from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1985.

His work has been shown in a variety of venues including the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Miami Art Museum and the St. Louis Art Museum. He has also collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Co. and has participated in artist residencies at artpace in San Antonio and the Studio Museum of Harlem, among others.

In 2011, Drew received the Joyce Alexander Wein Award from the Studio Museum in Harlem, a $50,000 award that recognizes and honors the artistic achievements of an African American artist who demonstrates great innovation, promise and creativity.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the department of art at 479-575-5202.