Wonderful figurines of the tough building
With his meticulous scale models, Philadelphia-based artist Drew Leshko is compiling a sculpture record of the most endangered buildings in the city. Leshko creates these figurines with care and love, mainly using paper and wood, in an effort to preserve the heritage of Philadelphia’s grungiest areas. Every commercial location, from neighborhood dive bars to pawn shops and corner shops, has been turned into a sentimental creative artwork.
The artist also creates images of New Orleans and other towns with crumbling buildings. Leshko wants to focus his focus and expertise on fast evolving, or redeveloping, districts regardless of the individual state or city. Since these antique businesses would soon be taken over by slick multinationals that oust the independent merchants that had formerly defined the region, he chooses the most susceptible elements of architecture as his target. In this way, Leshko’s artwork encourages reflection on the background of structures and how they influence our daily lives. He informs My Contemporary Met, “It’s fine to have brand-new, shining structures, but let’s not entirely remove our architectural legacy.”
Leshko employs both his own observations and photographs to meticulously recreate each feature of a building in his work. Leshko works at a scale of 12:1, which is normal for dollhouses, but his outcomes are completely different. The artist’s creations are a great tribute to his skill because they don’t use kits, readymade components, or bits that were cut from computers. Every small is mostly made of paper, which is precisely cut to size and colored with tiny brushes. It can take up to 120 hours to produce a medium-sized edifice, demonstrating his attention to accuracy in every little detail.
Urban architectural lessons can be learned by gazing at the statues. Leshko informs us of the role that accoutrements like garbage and wood pallets have in defining our towns by integrating them in his works. And by looking at the structures, many of which are no longer standing in the actual world, one can reflect on the growth of our towns and create a fresh perspective on what is deemed to be abandoned.
Drew Leshko produces intricate statues of the grimy cityscapes of Philadelphia and New Orleans.
They are incredibly detailed and mostly made of wood and paper.
Leshko frequently focuses on stores that are subject to gentrification-related transformation.
Because Leshko cuts and paints each piece by hands, a medium-sized structure can take up to 120 hours to complete.
