Eliana Willis

Traveling is off limits for many people right now, but art can offer a window into new places and experiences.
One artist for whom travel is integral is Leonardo Drew. Despite an early life spent tethered to his neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and a career formed on the basis of that localized experience, Drew eventually made his way beyond his city, traveling to Peru, Cuba, Spain, Switzerland, and Japan in quick succession.
“If you allow your antennas to reach out,” Drew says in an exclusive interview with Art21, “you’ll find what it is you need for this part of your journey.”
Drew’s practice relies heavily on being in the studio, where he creates massive sculptures from materials that he has transformed by oxidizing, weathering, burning, and manipulating objects. From sifting through landfills to amassing piles of hay bales and cotton, Drew’s work is rooted in the physical. 
“The art is fed by experiences” he tells Art21, explaining that while he was in Japan, he learned techniques for naturally dying fabrics.
“I went there to physically learn,” he says in the video, which originally aired as part of Art21’s Extended Play series. “But actually, spiritually learning was a whole other thing.” 
Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Extended Play, below.
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This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.
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As galleries and art institutions around the world begin to reopen, we are spotlighting individual shows—online and IRL—that are worth your attention.
“Clotilde Jiménez: The Contest” at Mariane Ibrahimthrough August 22

What the gallery says: “THE CONTEST unravels Jiménez’s own queer imagination to physicality. The works grapple with his deeply personal and once estranged relationship with his father, a bodybuilder and boxer. Jiménez adopts the boxer and bodybuilder as motifs, recalling early ideas of the body, specifically the Black male body.
Placed within each ‘pose’ or boxing ring, the large scale boxers and body builders brawl, their positions mighty, next to bronze sculptures of heads with colorful boxing headgear. He finds beauty in the color and sculptural physicality of boxing headgear and the groin protector that transforms the body into something strong, powerful and guarded.”
Why it’s worth a look: For his first solo show at star gallerist Mariane Ibrahim’s Chicago gallery, Honolulu-born, Mexico City-based artist Clotilde Jiménez is quite literally tackling notions of masculinity and Blackness.
In these works, you can really feel how the artist has infused the works with his personal understanding of what it means to be a strong man—delicate painted flowers adorn the furniture incorporated in some works, and swaths of pattern cut out and pasted onto the canvas provide another layer when juxtaposed with the shaded contours of the muscled bodies. His juxtaposition of unexpected materials and charged forms makes for images that wrestle their way in your head.
What it looks like:

Clotilde Jiménez with his sculpture, Orange Boxer (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Clotilde Jiménez, Always on Guard (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Installation view, “Clotilde Jiménez: The Contest” Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim.

Installation view, “Clotilde Jiménez: The Contest” Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim.

Clotilde Jiménez, Pose no. 4 (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Clotilde Jiménez, Pose no. 5 (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Clotilde Jiménez, Pose no. 6 (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Installation view, “Clotilde Jiménez: The Contest” Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim.

Clotilde Jiménez,, Shadow Boxer (2020). Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim.

Installation view, “Clotilde Jiménez: The Contest” Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim.

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Mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth is giving recent art-school graduates whose IRL MFA shows were cancelled a spotlight with two exhibitions in Somerset and Los Angeles.
The gallery will host the graduate exhibitions over the next four months, the first at its artist residency studios, the Maltings in Bruton, in Somerset; and the second at its Book and Printed Matter Lab, in Los Angeles this fall.
Hauser & Wirth is offering technical, curatorial, and marketing support to the students for both shows.
Ten recent graduates from four universities in the South West of England will present work in Somerset in an exhibition titled “In Real Life,” which will run from July 29 through August 2.
The artists included are Melody Addo, Betsy Bond, Samantha Davies, Kamila Dowgiert, Juliet Duckworth, Louise Hall, Lauren Horrell, Lilith Piper, Madeline Rolt, and Connor Vickery-Gearty. 
“This has been a remarkable time for our final year students,” Natasha Kidd, head of the Bath School of Art & Design’s fine art program, said in a statement.
“The degree shows were postponed—the assessments took place online, whole shows compressed into pdfs. Tutorials took place through ‘hangouts’—into an array of domestic spaces. Washing lines, hallways and even greenhouses became the site of making work—pet dogs, parents/partners or the odd passer-by on their daily exercise became the audience.”
Louise Hall, 13 Dead, Nothing Said (2020). Image ©Louise Hall. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

“Providing support and a platform for artists emerging at this current moment is crucial,” says the Kent-born artist Anj Smith, who is among the artists who are contributing to the gallery’s education program. “Art has long been at the forefront of cultural progress and we need inspired, thoughtful voices now more than ever.”
The gallery is also partnering with Cal State LA to include works by MFA graduates from the 2020 class in the Los Angeles exhibition in the fall.
The project is part of the gallery’s philanthropic initiative, #artforbetter, which includes effort to support educational institutions.
“A deep-rooted commitment to education and professional development has always been at the heart of the gallery and embedded in each exhibition,” gallery cofounder Manuela Wirth said in a statement.
“It’s important to us that we remain connected to the wider creative community and artistic energy surrounding each gallery location, enabling new generations of talent to thrive by creating meaningful partnerships and support networks.”
See images of student artworks below.
Kamila Dowgiert, 24/5 (2020). Image ©Kamila Dowgiert. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Melody Addo, Chocolate Pudding (still frame) (2020). Image ©Melody Addo. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Juliet Duckworth, Apple Path – November 2019 (2019 – 2020). Image ©Juliet Duckworth. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Betsy Bond, Landscape Exhibition Space (2020). Image ©Betsy Bond. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

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