This year's Leo Award was created by New York-based artist, Tony Matelli. The award will be presented to this year’s honoree, Marian Goodman, during ICI’s Annual Benefit and Auction on October 26, 2016.
Developed out of Matelli's recent Garden series, this year's Leo displays an aged head of cast concrete delicately crowned by a triad of seemingly ripe strawberries. Cast in bronze and meticulously painted, these eternally ripe fruits contrast pointedly with their carefully weathered base. This disjunctive pairing belies the work’s high production, creating a seamless experience of both accelerated and arrested time.
Evoking both an accumulated history and a feeling of immediacy, this year’s Leo mirrors Marian Goodman’s steadfast and continuing commitment to artists and contemporary art: deeply grounded, but ever-present. Tony Matelli was born in Chicago, and lives and works in New York. His upcoming exhibition at The Aldrich Contemporary Museum in Ridgefield opens in November 2016. He is represented by Marlborough Gallery, New York.
To coincide with this year’s Annual Benefit & Auction, Matelli has also created a Limited Edition for ICI, which will launch at NADA Miami Beach in December 2016.
