Leonardo Drew

My stand-out, hands-down favorite from the Armory Show was Leonardo Drew’s work at Pace Prints. The silver and sapphire 16P feels alive, like the saturated pigment is crawling across this nearly three-dimensional handmade paper.

I was familiar with Drew’s larger, more explosive installation and sculpture work, shown here installed at Sikkema Jenkins in 2012. He creates very toothy objects (/obstacles) from jagged and charred timber, replete with rusty nails and splinters galore. In the prints, Drew uses paper pulp like he uses wood - as a malleable and expressive medium - but in a surprisingly delicate way. It's so refreshing to see the energy consistently present in his work translated to a more subdued, poetic form.

Drew made the prints at Pace Paper in Brooklyn, a gallery-affiliated studio that's turning out a number of compelling collaborations with artists like Chuck Close, Robert Ryman, and Shepherd Fairey. This video documents Leonardo Drew and printers at Pace Paper; skip to 5:30 if you want to see the making of 16P.